[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 218 (Friday, November 12, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 69477-69478]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-28547]
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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
[Release No. 34-63273; File No. SR-OPRA-2010-03]
Options Price Reporting Authority; Notice of Filing and Immediate
Effectiveness of Proposed Amendment To Revise the Device-Based
Professional Subscriber Fees Charged by OPRA for its Basic Service
November 8, 2010.
Pursuant to Section 11A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
(``Act'') \1\ and Rule 608 thereunder,\2\ notice is hereby given that
on October 29, 2010, the Options Price Reporting Authority (``OPRA'')
submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') an
amendment to the Plan for Reporting of Consolidated Options Last Sale
Reports and Quotation Information (``OPRA Plan'').\3\ The proposed
amendment would revise the device-based professional subscriber fees
charged by OPRA in respect of its Basic Service. A conforming revision
is proposed to be made to OPRA's Enterprise Rate Professional
Subscriber Fee. The Commission is publishing this notice to solicit
comments from interested persons on the proposed OPRA Plan amendment.
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\1\ 15 U.S.C. 78k-1.
\2\ 17 CFR 242.608.
\3\ The OPRA Plan is a national market system plan approved by
the Commission pursuant to Section 11A of the Act and Rule 608
thereunder (formerly Rule 11Aa3-2). See Securities Exchange Act
Release No. 17638 (March 18, 1981), 22 S.E.C. Docket 484 (March 31,
1981). The full text of the OPRA Plan is available at http://www.opradata.com.
The OPRA Plan provides for the collection and dissemination of
last sale and quotation information on options that are traded on
the participant exchanges. The eight participants to the OPRA Plan
are BATS Exchange, Inc., Chicago Board Options Exchange,
Incorporated, C2 Options Exchange, Incorporated, International
Securities Exchange, LLC, NASDAQW OMX BX, Inc., NASDAQ OMX PHLX,
Inc., NASDAQ Stock Market LLC, NYSE Amex, Inc., and NYSE Arca, Inc.
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I. Description and Purpose of the Plan Amendment
The purpose of the amendment is to make incremental increases in
OPRA's device-based professional subscriber fees in respect of its
Basic Service and in the Enterprise Rate charged to those subscribers
who elect that rate in place of device-based fees. These increases will
be phased in over a four-year period. Specifically, it is proposed to
increase the current $23 monthly per device fee by $1.00 in each of the
years 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. It is also proposed to increase the
Enterprise Rate, currently a monthly fee of $23 times the number of a
subscriber's U.S.-based registered representatives, by this same amount
in each of these years and to make conforming changes to the minimum
monthly fee under the Enterprise Rate. These increases will be
effective on January 1 in each year. OPRA's Basic Service currently
consists of market data and related information pertaining to all of
the options listed and traded on its member Exchanges (i.e., equity
options and index options, including foreign currency index options)
(``OPRA Data''). Professional subscribers are persons who subscribe to
OPRA Data and do not qualify for the reduced fees charged to
nonprofessional subscribers. OPRA's Enterprise Rate is based on the
number of a professional subscriber's U.S. registered representatives
and independent investment advisers who contract with the subscriber to
provide advisory services to the subscriber's customers.
The proposed increases in the device-based professional subscriber
fee and in the Enterprise Rate are intended to generate revenues for
OPRA and its member exchanges that are needed to cover actual and
anticipated increases in the costs of collecting, consolidating,
processing and disseminating options market information and assuring
the reliability and integrity of that information, as well as increases
in OPRA's administrative costs. These increases reflect the higher
costs of enhancements to and upgrades of the OPRA system and related
exchange systems that are needed in order to enable OPRA, its
participant exchanges and its vendors to handle a greater volume of
market information as a result of the continuing expansion of listed
options trading and to provide a greater degree of redundancy and
security in the OPRA system. Increases in administrative costs largely
reflect higher employee costs. Assuming the number of fee-liable
devices and registered persons remains the same, OPRA estimates that
the overall effect of the proposed increases in professional subscriber
fees will be to increase revenues derived from these fees by
approximately 4% in each of the four years covered by the proposal.
The text of the proposed amendment to the OPRA Plan is available at
OPRA, the Commission's Public Reference Room, http://opradata.com, and
on the Commission's Web site at http://www.sec.gov.
II. Implementation of the OPRA Plan Amendment
Pursuant to paragraph (b)(3)(i) of Rule 608 under the Act,\4\ OPRA
designated this amendment as establishing or changing a fee or other
charge collected on behalf of all of the OPRA Participants in
connection with access to or use of OPRA facilities. In order to give
persons subject to these fees advance notice of the changes, the first
of these changes is not proposed to be put into effect until January 1,
2011. Notice of these fee changes is being sent to OPRA Vendors and
Professional Subscribers at or about the date of the filing.
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\4\ 17 CFR 242.608(b)(3)(i).
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The Commission may summarily abrogate the amendment within sixty
days of its filing and require refiling and approval of the amendment
by Commission order pursuant to Rule 608(b)(2) under the Act \5\ if it
appears to the Commission that such action is necessary or appropriate
in the public interest, for the protection of investors, or the
maintenance of fair and orderly
[[Page 69478]]
markets, to remove impediments to, and perfect the mechanisms of, a
national market system, or otherwise in furtherance of the purposes of
the Act.
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\5\ 17 CFR 242.608(b)(2).
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III. Solicitation of Comments
Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views, and
arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed OPRA
Plan amendment is consistent with the Act. Comments may be submitted by
any of the following methods:
Electronic Comments
Use the Commission's Internet comment form (http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml); or
Send an e-mail to [email protected]. Please include
File No. SR-OPRA-2010-03 on the subject line.
Paper Comments
Send paper comments in triplicate to Elizabeth M. Murphy,
Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street, NE.,
Washington, DC 20549-1090.
All submissions should refer to File Number SR-OPRA-2010-03. This file
number should be included on the subject line if e-mail is used. To
help the Commission process and review your comments more efficiently,
please use only one method. The Commission will post all comments on
the Commission's Internet Web site (http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml). Copies of the submission, all subsequent amendments, all
written statements with respect to the proposed plan amendment that are
filed with the Commission, and all written communications relating to
the proposed plan amendment between the Commission and any person,
other than those that may be withheld from the public in accordance
with the provisions of 5 U.S.C. 552, will be available for website
viewing and printing in the Commission's Public Reference Room, 100 F
Street, NE., Washington, DC 20549, on official business days between
the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Copies of such filing also will be
available for inspection and copying at the principal office of OPRA.
All comments received will be posted without change; the Commission
does not edit personal identifying information from submissions. You
should submit only information that you wish to make available
publicly. All submissions should refer to File Number SR-OPRA-2010-03
and should be submitted on or before December 3, 2010.
For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets,
pursuant to delegated authority.\6\
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\6\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(29).
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Florence E. Harmon,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2010-28547 Filed 11-10-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011-01-P