When London-based Vedaris shut up shop earlier this year, many market punditsfeared it was a sign of things to come. Energy markets were in the doldrums,they argued, and so the obvious casualty would be those companies offering riskmanagement technology. After all, energy companies are unlikely to invest incomplex trading systems when budgets are tight and energy trading markets aresuffering liquidity crunches, the argument continued.

But research by various consultancies, and reports from