Let it never be said that Wall Street doesn't finish what it starts. Take WorldCom. During the late 1990s investment banks rushed madly to finance the white-hot telecommunications service provider -- so much so that several of them wound up as defendants in shareholder litigation after the company's alleged $11 billion accounting fraud came to light in 2002. Now, with former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers on trial in New York on charges that he masterminded the flimflam job, the Street's main lobbying and professional organization is doing its part to help the company get back on its feet.

Late last month the Securities Industry Association announced a contract with MCI, as the former WorldCom is known since its emergence from bankruptcy protection last year, to provide Internet services to nearly 600 brokerage houses. The deal, for an undisclosed sum, lets SIA members tap MCI for Web site hosting, Internet access, video conferencing and security services, at rates negotiated by the association. An SIA spokeswoman says the group's relationship with MCI dates to a similar arrangement it struck in 1995 with UUNet, which WorldCom subsequently acquired. "We have been working with MCI for a while," she says. "This is just one of many agreements we reach with different vendors to try to get the best services at the best prices possible for our members."