2023-01740. Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request; Extension: Rule 602

Upon Written Request, Copies Available From: Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of FOIA Services, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549-2736

Notice is hereby given that pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (“PRA”) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), the Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission”) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) a request for approval of extension of the previously approved collection of information provided for in Rule 602 of Regulation NMS (17 CFR 240.602), under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78a et seq.).

Rule 602 of Regulation NMS, Dissemination of Quotations in NMS securities, contains two related collections. The first collection of information is found in Rule 602(a).^[1] This third-party disclosure requirement obligates each national securities exchange and national securities association to make available to quotation vendors for dissemination to the public the best bid, best offer, and aggregate quotation size for each “subject security,” as defined under the Rule. The second collection of information is found in Rule 602(b).^[2] This disclosure requirement obligates any exchange member and over-the-counter (“OTC”) market maker that is a “responsible broker or dealer,” as defined under the Rule, to communicate to an exchange or association their best bids, best offers, and quotation sizes for subject securities.^[3]

It is anticipated that 25 respondents, consisting of 24 national securities exchanges and one national securities association, will collectively respond approximately 19,093,763,801,315 times per year pursuant to Rule 602(a) at 18.22 microseconds per response, resulting in a total annual burden of approximately 96,625 hours. It is anticipated that no respondents will have a reporting burden pursuant to Rule 602(b).^[4]

Thus, the aggregate third-party disclosure burden under Rule 602 is approximately 96,625 hours annually which is comprised of 96,625 hours relating to Rule 602(a) and 0 hours relating to Rule 602(b).

Compliance with Rule 602 of Regulation NMS is mandatory and the information collected is made available to the public.

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information under the PRA unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

The public may view background documentation for this information collection at the following website: www.reginfo.gov. Find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under 30-day Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the search function. Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent by March 1, 2023 to (i) www.reginfo.gov/​public/​do/​PRAMain and (ii) David Bottom, Director/Chief Information Officer, Securities and Exchange Commission, c/o John Pezzullo, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549, or by sending an email to: [e-mail].

Dated: January 24, 2023.

Sherry R. Haywood,

Assistant Secretary.

Footnotes

1.  17 CFR 242.602(a).

2.  17 CFR 242.602(b).

3.  Under Rule 602(b)(5), electronic communications networks (“ECNs”) have the option of reporting to an exchange or association for public dissemination, on behalf of customers that are OTC market makers or exchange market makers, the best-priced orders and the full size for such orders entered by market makers on the ECN, to satisfy such market makers' reporting obligation under Rule 602(b). Since this reporting requirement is an alternative method of meeting the market makers' reporting obligation, and because it is directed to nine or fewer persons (ECNs), this collection of information is not subject to OMB review under the Paperwork Reduction Act (“PRA”).

4.  For the reporting obligation under Rule 602(b), the respondents are exchange members and OTC market makers. The Commission believes that communication of quotations through an exchange's electronic trading system effectively means that exchange members currently have no reporting burden under Rule 602(b) for these quotations. The Commission also believes that there are presently no OTC market makers that quote other than on an exchange.