On the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina securities regulators in Louisiana and Mississippi are functioning at 100%, but the storm resulted in them making procedural and operational changes. In Louisiana, the state legislature passed a law that would give the Commissioner of Financial Institutions broad powers if the governor were to declare an emergency. "The commissioner has the authority to address problems that may not be contemplated," said Len Riviere, deputy chief examiner for the Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions. The law became effective June 13. Riviere said that in the aftermath of Katrina many states allowed displaced brokers and investors to conduct business across state lines. He said with the broad emergency powers the commissioner could enact such provisions on his own. Jim Nelson, assistant secretary of state for business, regulation and enforcement in Mississippi, said Katrina forced the securities division to upgrade its systems to give employees remote computer access. The office was shut down in the week following Katrina because of power outages. He said if employees had been able to move to areas with power, operations could have continued. The upgrades, which just went through in the last month, will allow examiners and investigators to do all their work from the road, Nelson said. Regulators in both states said firms should take precautions against further disasters by backing up all documents electronically and making sure clients and regulators have numbers where they can reach the firm if it gets displaced.

Separately, the Mississippi division currently has eight active investigations into scams involving senior citizens who received large insurance settlements in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Nelson said people have been improperly giving investment advice by hosting seminars to entice seniors to invest in variable and equity indexed annuities. He said his office has issued a few cease-and-desist orders and has more pending. The regulator has been warning investors to stick with their regular broker or adviser. Despite the investigations in Mississippi, regulators in Louisiana have not received any complaints of Katrina-related securities fraud.