Following Australia’s catastrophic bushfires last month, attention shifted fast from fire fighting to fire prevention. Once the immediate crisis was dealt with, people started to ask how they could protect themselves in the future

Something similar is happening in fund managers' attitudes towards derivatives. In the days and weeks following the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the onset of the most savage phase of the financial crisis, asset managers and investment advisers scrambled to unwind positions, improve controls and reassure their clients.