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Despite not yet receiving state regulatory approval to acquire East Boston Savings Bank, Rockland Trust Co. still expects to close the deal in the middle of next month.

Rockland Trust CEO Christopher Oddleifson said during the bank’s third quarter conference call on Friday that there were no “yellow flags or anomalies” in the process, noting that regulatory approvals were tracking with what the bank has experienced in the past.

Federal regulators – the Federal Reserve and the Federal Depositors Insurance Corp. – already approved the merger. Approval from the Massachusetts Division of Banks is still needed.

In response to an analyst’s question about what made him optimistic that the deal could still close in mid-November given a recent trend of regulatory delays in the marketplace, Oddleifson said he had been hearing that the deals being delayed involved larger institutions and did not affect the size of transactions like the one with East Boston Savings Bank.

Oddleifson also said that bank was in “constant contact” with regulators and understood where they were in the process.

The acquisition of East Boston Savings Bank is the largest deal in Rockland Trust’s history, and the bank is already looking ahead to more acquisition opportunities. Rockland Trust has over the past decade made an acquisition every year or two, and Oddleifson said that the bank was interested in continuing that track record. He added that he would prefer to see an opportunity surface next year.

“I think in an ideal world … I’d like to get through this acquisition and give everybody a really nice holiday because they worked really hard,” Oddleifson said in response to an analyst’s question about future M&A opportunities.

Oddleifson said he expects bank merger activity to continue nationally, despite limited opportunities.

“The number of banks that are eligible certainly has been the diminished over the years,” Oddleifson said. “But there are some really, really nice banks that would be a great combination with Rockland Trust, and maybe someday they’ll raise their hand, and we’d love to have a conversation.”

Rockland Trust’s parent company, Independent Bank Corp., had third quarter net income of $40 million, or $1.21 per diluted share, compared to net income of $37.6 million, or $1.14 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2021 and $34.87, or $1.06 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2020.

Third quarter results included merger-related costs of $1.9 million, the bank said in its earnings statement.

Rockland Trust’s total assets were $14.5 billion as of Sept. 30, up 2.4 percent, from the second quarter and 10.3 percent year-over-year. The bank attributed the increase to a significant growth in deposits and cash balances. The bank said that it had accelerated deploying a portion of the excess cash into investment securities during the third quarter.

Total loans at the end of the third quarter decreased by 1.5 percent from the second quarter to $8.8 billion, primarily because of a reduction in Paycheck Protection Program loan balances, the bank said. Excluding PPP activity, total loans declined $31.9 million, which the bank said reflected heightened payoff activity that was partially offset by strong closing activity on new loans.

Total deposits were $12.3 billion in the third quarter, increasing by $273.2 million, or 2.3 percent, from the prior quarter.

Rockland Trust recently opened its third Worcester branch and earlier this year opened a branch in Shrewsbury. Those four branches now have about $65 million in deposits, Chief Operating Officer Rob Cozzone said during Friday’s conference call. The bank’s president, Gerard Nadeau, said that the new lending team in Worcester has added about $75 million in commercial loans to the portfolio.