which is predicted to be earning $1.3 trillion in revenue by 2003.

The news came yesterday from Renee Webb as she opened the second day of a conference on e-commerce and offshore financial services in London.

She warned participants that beyond global brands like Amazon, there was another breed of "information massaging'' companies whose impact would dwarf the consumer dot.coms.

And she said: "We in Bermuda are conscious of what they portend and have already begun establishing an institutional climate conducive to their success.'' These were Internet companies operating in the business-to-business sector, continued Ms Webb, who disclosed: "Revenues in this arena will be so vast as to be almost incomprehensible.

"A major consulting group puts their revenue figure at $1.3 trillion, the size of the Gross National Product of France, by 2003.'' These new types of business-to-business intermediaries operate under different names including "vortexes, butterfly markets and net market makers'', said Ms Webb.

"They operate as electronic hubs, creating value by aggregating buyers-and-sellers and reducing transaction costs.

"By offering transparent pricing and near-perfect efficiency, these firms will radically realign traditional market relationships.

"It is only a matter of time before one can buy or sell anything from spare airplane parts to secondary mortgages on the Internet.'' CONFERENCES CON