ICICI bank, country's second largest lender has signed an agreement with Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX) to provide clearing and settlement processing services to traders on the exchange.

A press release said that the bank would also be required to provide a platform to market players in India and abroad to trade on global commodity exchange.

This agreement would enable ICICI to impede settlement of transactions that take place on SMX.

ICICI Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar said, "This association reflects our focus towards expanding our footprint in the clearing and settlement banking services across the globe...ICICI Bank is now positioning itself to provide its services to SMX and its members."

SMX is Asia's most recent commodity derivatives exchange and plans to start trading in January. The exchange has signed up with 28 members.

SMX, a wholly owned arm of Financial technologies, provides electronic platform for trading futures and options contracts in commodities like metals, base metals, energy etc.

The bank, at present, is also acting as a settlement banker for National stock exchange, Bombay stock exchange, national commodities and Derivatives exchange and multi commodity exchange.