Profits at CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange, fell 69 per cent in the fourth quarter as trading houses cut back on futures operations and the exchange group wrote down $275m on a 2007 cross-equity deal.

Separately, CME said trading volumes plummeted by more than 40 per cent last month compared with January 2008, with interest-rate trading down nearly 60 per cent. That suggests the pace of deleveraging by financial institutions is quickening: in December, CME’s trading volumes fell by 22 per cent, while interest-rate volumes were down by 49 per cent.