CME Group, the world's biggest derivatives exchange, on Wednesday signalled a wave of international expansion, strengthening its presence in Asia and taking its first step into Latin America.

The enlarged group, created from the $11bn merger between the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade in July, has seen trading volumes boom as volatility on Wall Street in recent months has spurred greater interest among investors for using derivatives to spread risk.

CME announced this month it had already traded a record 1bn contracts this year on its electronic trading platform.

The international forays comes as critics question whether the group's current growth rate is sustainable. "With our historic merger with CBOT now complete, CME Group is continuing to aggressively execute our global growth strategy in important emerging markets," said Craig Donohue, chief executive.

CME signed a deal on Wednesday with the Korea Exchange to list the benchmark Kospi 200 futures contract on its electronic trading platform from next year.

Mr Donohue said the Korean agreement was just one of a number of expansion opportunities in Asia. "We're very broadly focused on Asia," he said. "We've been very active in Japan, China, India and now Korea. We have a multitude of different growth initiatives throughout Asia."

Asia is attractive to the CME because it will add extra volumes during US after-hours trading, when its electronic trading platform has excess capacity.

CME also announced a cross-equity deal with the Brazilian Mercantile and Futures Exchange, the largest derivatives exchange in Latin America and the fourth-biggest in the world.

Under the terms of the all-paper deal, the first of its kind between a US and a Latin American exchange, CME will take a 10 per cent stake in BM&F in exchange for a 2 per cent holding, a deal valued at some $700m or R$1.3bn. It comes in the run-up to an initial public offer of shares in the BM&F expected to take place by the end of the year.

Officials declined to comment on the implication of valuing 10 per cent of the BM&F at $700m so soon before its IPO but the deal can be expected to set a new floor for the issue price.

Last month BM&F's shareholders sold 10 per cent of its shares to General Atlantic, a US private equity firm that has taken stakes in several exchanges around the world, for R$1bn, paying R$900m up front and the remaining R$100m on condition that the BM&F's IPO should take place before year end and that its subsequent market capitalisation should exceed R$12bn.

Mr Donhue said on Wednesday the BM&F deal was a growth opportunity "not just in new products, but in expanding the use of core products by Latin American investors … Latin America is a developing market. There's a lot of business we can capture there as those markets are developing, opening and maturing."

The CME on Wednesday reported third-quarter net income up to $201.6m from $103.8m a year ago. Excluding merger-related expenses, earnings per share came in ahead of analysts' expectations at $4.31.

The company's shares were up 2.7 per cent at $651.90 in the last hour of New York trading.