One merger proposal is set to bring two birds in the hands of ICICI Bank. Along with gaining control of the 468 branches of Bank of Rajasthan (BoR), the largest private sector lender of the country would also gain control on 58 branches of a regional rural bank which was sponsored by BoR.

The Mewar Aanchalik Gramin Bank (MAGB)-sponsored by BoR was established in 1983 and its branches cover districts of Udaipur, Rajsamand and Pratapgarh in Rajasthan.

Apart from MAGB, J&K Gramin Bank (sponsor: J&K Bank Ltd) and Kshetriya Kisan Gramin Bank (sponsor: UP State Co-op Bank), all other RRBs have PSBs and their associate banks of SBI as sponsors.

However, the foreign tag assigned to ICICI Bank may prove to be a hurdle against gainning sponsorship of MAGB.

Questioning the issue, Mr Pramod Kumar Sharma, General Secretary, All-India BoR Officers Association said that the working culture of ICICI Bank does not match with either BoR or MAGB.