Energy Risk 2026 Software Rankings: CTRM landscape needs to support resilience

- By Stella Farrington
- 01 Apr 2026

As markets continue to assess the impact of the Middle East conflict, it is critical that commodity firms are able to view their positions, understand rapidly changing exposures and take timely action where required.

Higher oil and gas prices have already led to rising margin calls at the major commodity exchanges and clearing houses. According to Risk.net, margin rises at the start of the conflict were consistent with energy supplies normalising in about four to six weeks. As the conflict extends beyond that, significant margin hikes could be on the cards. Firms with open interest in those markets will therefore need to be able to calculate the impact of this on cashflows and make any necessary adjustments.

If the Strait of Hormuz remains unnavigable for a prolonged period, then the conflict moves to a different stage where trade routes would need to be renegotiated, supply shortages could arise and prices could skyrocket, analysts say. Inflationary pressures would then hit world economies with full force and commodity firms would need to manage emergency operational issues, increased credit risk and rising supply chain risk as well as high prices.

The ease with which firms can view their positions across the company, understand exposures and the linkages between exposures, calculate market and credit risk and forecast margin calls, will depend on the commodity trading and risk management (CTRM) software landscape they have in place. The functionalities offered by the software, its ability to integrate with other applications and the quality of data going into it will have a huge impact on how well firms weather the months ahead.

Energy Risk’s annual Software Rankings survey shows which CTRM and enterprise risk management (ERM) software systems were considered the most proficient in a variety of areas during 2025 and into 2026. In the survey – now in its 21st year – participants voted for their preferred CTRM and ERM software providers in different commodity product categories and functionalities. Firms also voted for their preferred data firms.

In a survey that ran alongside the Rankings poll, respondents said one of their biggest IT challenges is understanding what new technologies are out there. This is where technology advisers can provide invaluable help, and these are also included in the survey.

Click on the link above to see the Software Rankings results for 2026.

How the poll was conducted

The survey went live on November 24, 2025 and closed on January 30, 2026. It received 624 valid responses. To compile the Software Rankings, respondents were asked to vote for their preferred software vendor, data management firm, data provider and technology adviser in a variety of categories. All votes were carefully checked and invalid votes stripped out. Examples of votes considered invalid are people voting for their own firm or using a free internet-based email address, multiple votes from the same person or IP address, and voters who choose the same firm indiscriminately throughout the survey.

Following closure of the poll, the results are subject to an internal review process, which can result in categories being dropped if they do not have enough votes. The outcome of the review is final.