ICICI Bank today said jobs of over 4,000 employees of Bank of Rajasthan, which

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it is acquiring, are safe and that there would be no layoffs or discrimination against its new staff members.

"Whenever we do a merger and acquisition, we treat the employees of the acquired bank as a part of our parivar (family)...We will take care of them (BoR employees) as our own employees—-we are not here to retrench people," ICICI Bank Managing Director and CEO Chanda Kochhar told PTI here.

ICICI Bank, the country's largest private sector lender, had in the past acquired Bank of Madura and Sangli Bank and there had been no retrenchments even then.

Last week, the boards of ICICI Bank and BoR approved the merger through a share swap ratio which values the latter at about Rs 3,000 crore. As per the board decision, the transaction would be done by way of offering 25 shares of ICICI for every 118 shares of BoR.

BoR employees need have no fear of loss of jobs, Kochhar said, adding, "employees will become a part of our parivar."

ICICI Bank's employee strength will go up to 39,000 from the current 35,000 employees after the merger.

Describing the bank as a responsible entity, Kochhar said, "it takes great care of its employees."

ICICI Bank will seek the shareholders approval for the proposed merger of BoR with itself through extra-ordinary general meeting (EGM) on June 21.

Post-merger, the total business of ICICI Bank would cross Rs 4 lakh crore and there would be an increment of 25 per cent in branch network.

The BoR has 463 branches and amalgamation would push up the number of branches ICICI Bank to about 2,500.

Gearing itself to welcome 30 lakh customers of BoR, she said, all the customers would be the part of the ICICI family and would be looked after them as such.

"We (ICICI) will approach the BoR customers formally after the merger and I assure them they will face no problem. We welcome BoR customers with open arms. We will ensure a seamless integration," she said.

"I would not like to compare the customer service standards of the two banks but a customer is the biggest asset of any bank and we will treat customers as our biggest assets. BoR customers have no cause for concern," she said.

The merger would result in addition of 30 lakh customers of BoR as it is ICICI Bank has about 2 crore customers.