2010-24651. Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request  

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    Upon Written Request, Copies Available From: Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of Investor Education and Advocacy, Washington, DC 20549-0213.

    Extension:

    Rule 204A-1; SEC File No. 270-536; OMB Control No. 3235-0596.

    Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget a request for extension of the previously approved collection of information discussed below.

    The title for the collection of information is “Rule 204A-1 (17 CFR 275.204A-1) under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.” (15 U.S.C. 80b-1 et seq.) Rule 204A-1, the Code of Ethics Rule, requires investment advisers registered with the SEC to (i) set forth standards of conduct expected of advisory personnel (including compliance with the Federal securities laws), (ii) safeguard material nonpublic information about client transactions, and (iii) require the adviser's “access persons” to report their personal securities transactions, including transactions in any mutual fund managed by the adviser. The code of ethics also requires access persons to obtain the adviser's approval before investing in an initial public offering (“IPO”) or private placement. The code of ethics also requires prompt reporting, to the adviser's chief compliance officer or another person designated in the code of ethics, of any violations of the code. Finally, the code of ethics requires the adviser to provide each supervised person with a copy of the code and any amendments, and require the supervised persons to acknowledge, in writing, their receipt of these copies. The purposes of the information collection requirements is (i) to ensure that advisers maintain codes of ethics applicable to their supervised persons; (ii) to provide advisers with information about the personal securities transactions of their access persons for purposes of monitoring such transactions; (iii) to provide advisory clients with information with which to evaluate advisers' codes of ethics; and (iv) to assist the Commission's examination staff in assessing the adequacy of advisers' codes of ethics and assessing personal trading activity by advisers' supervised persons.

    The respondents to this information collection are investment advisers registered with the Commission. The Commission has estimated that compliance with rule 204A-1 imposes a burden of approximately 118 hours per adviser annually based on an average adviser having 84 access persons. Our latest data indicate that there were 11,797 advisers registered with the Commission. Based on this figure, the Commission estimates a total annual burden of 1,391,456 hours for this collection of information.

    Rule 204A-1 does not require recordkeeping or record retention. The collection of information requirements under the rule are mandatory. The information collected pursuant to the rule are not filed with the Commission, but rather take the form of communications between advisers and their supervised persons. Investment advisers use the information collected to control and assess the personal trading activities of their supervised persons. Responses to the reporting requirements will be kept confidential to the extent each investment adviser provides confidentiality under its particular practices and procedures. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid control number.

    Please direct general comments regarding the above information to the following persons: (i) Desk Officer for the Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of Management and Budget, Room 10102, New Executive Office Building, Washington, DC 20503 or send an e-mail to Shagufta Ahmed at Shagufta_Ahmed@omb.eop.gov; and (ii) Jeffrey Heslop, Director/Acting CIO, Securities and Exchange Commission, c/o Remi Pavlik-Simon, 6432 General Green Way, Alexandria, VA 22312; or Start Printed Page 60832send an e-mail to: PRA_Mailbox@sec.gov. Comments must be submitted to OMB within 30 days of this notice.

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    Dated: September 24, 2010.

    Florence E. Harmon,

    Deputy Secretary.

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    [FR Doc. 2010-24651 Filed 9-30-10; 8:45 am]

    BILLING CODE 8010-01-P

Document Information

Comments Received:
0 Comments
Published:
10/01/2010
Department:
Securities and Exchange Commission
Entry Type:
Notice
Document Number:
2010-24651
Pages:
60831-60832 (2 pages)
PDF File:
2010-24651.pdf