The largest private sector lender of the country, ICICI Bank's merger with troubled Bank of Rajasthan is awaiting approval from Reserve Bank of India. The merger process would initiate once the bank receives all needed regulatory clearances, said a top bank official.

"We have applied to RBI and RBI is processing the application (for merger of BoR with itself)," ICICI Bank CEO and Managing Director Chanda Kochhar said.

She said that it would be inappropriate to comment on the timing of arrival of approval.

The two banks had moved for RBI approval after shareholders gave their nod for the merger.

This acquisition would be third in number for ICICI Bank.

With BoR amalgamating into ICICI, the lender's branch network would see a 25% increase to about 2,500 in the country.

ICICI Bank has about 2,000 branches while BoR has 463 spread across the country.