The CME Group, the world’s biggest futures exchange, said on Wednesday that profits in the third quarter were up slightly from the same period last year as growth in the derivatives trade was hit by deleveraging from financial institutions damaged by the financial crisis.

Excluding extraordinary items, CME’s net income was $278m or $4.13 per share, up 3 per cent from $269m or $4 per share a year ago, on revenues of $787m, up 6 per cent from last year’s figure of $744m.

The company has enjoyed extraordinary growth in recent years, fuelled by a string of high-profile acquisitions such as that of the Chicago Board of Trade last year and Nymex this year. Without the cost-cutting that has followed such purchases, CME would be struggling to make a profit: most of the profit for the third quarter was accounted for by a $7m decrease in expenses.

CME – which controls 98 per cent of listed futures in the US – has suffered from a pullback in derivatives trading by the big Wall Street houses. Morgan Stanley said on Wednesday that as a result of economic turbulence, financial exchanges should brace themselves for a continuing fall in trading volumes next year.

“We believe [the] post-crisis landscape will exert significant pressure on growth and forecast a decline in most key products in 2009, the broadest decline since 1988,” said Patrick Pinschmidt, an analyst at Morgan Stanley. “CME enjoys dominant market shares across its core products, but we worry this will be insufficient to overcome weaker volume trends.”

CME’s share price has fallen from $686 at the start of the year to $265 by the close of trading in New York on Wednesday. The company released the results after the market had closed.

As it seeks new revenue streams, CME is attempting to position itself to benefit from the turmoil, in particular, regulators’ wish to reduce risk in the over-the-counter credit derivatives market.

Last month CME announced a deal with Citadel, the hedge fund, to form an electronic marketplace with central counterparty clearing for credit-default swaps. US regulators are keen to see a clearing house established for the OTC contracts as soon as possible, and the exchange has long wanted to establish itself in the $54,000bn CDS market.

“As customers in the over-the-counter derivative markets move increasingly toward more regulated, transparent and centrally cleared markets, CME Group is extremely well positioned to benefit,” said Craig Donohue, chief executive.