Shares in the company were down 7.3% at £15.99 in afternoon trading on the back of the warning in an interim trading update covering the period from 1 July.

Fidessa says the uncertainty is causing small firms "to delay before committing resources to develop their business" and adds that "it is mainly within these smaller firms that we are also seeing a level of consolidation and restructuring and we expect it will continue to be a feature of the market for some time."

The vendor warns that the market will remain difficult to predict, with the "true nature" of the economy and prospective regulation remaining unclear for some time.

"Despite this, we are confident that we can deliver good growth for 2010 as a whole although, as previously stated, we do not believe that the overall rate of growth will be as high as that seen during 2009," says the statement.

Meanwhile, there is a "higher level of cost control" and a strong balance sheet with strong reserves, no debt, strong cash generation and substantial levels of recurring revenue.