2022-23570. Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request; Extension: Regulation S-AM

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 Regulation S-AM (17 CFR part 248, subpart B), under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.) (“FCRA”), the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78a et seq.), the Investment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a-1 et seq.), and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80b-1 et seq.).

Regulation S-AM implements the requirements of Section 624 of the FCRA (15 U.S.C. 1681s-3) with respect to investment advisers and transfer agents registered with the Commission, as well as brokers, dealers and investment companies (collectively, “Covered Persons”). Section 624 and Regulation S-AM limit a Covered Person's use of certain consumer financial information received from an affiliate to solicit a consumer for marketing purposes, unless the consumer was given notice and a reasonable opportunity and a reasonable and simple method to opt out of such solicitations. Regulation S-AM potentially applies to all of the approximately 21,896 Covered Persons registered with the Commission, although only approximately 12,262 of them have one or more corporate affiliates, and the regulation requires only approximately 2,190 to provide consumers with an affiliate marketing notice and an opt-out opportunity.

The Commission staff estimates that there are approximately 12,262 Covered Persons having one or more affiliates, and that they each spend an average of 0.20 hours per year to review affiliate marketing practices, for, collectively, an estimated annual time burden of approximately 2,452 hours at an annual internal compliance cost of approximately $1,444,228. The staff also estimates that approximately 2,190 Covered Persons provide notice and opt-out opportunities to consumers, and that they each spend an average of 7.6 hours per year creating notices, providing notices and opt-out opportunities, monitoring the opt-out notice process, making and updating records of opt-out elections, and addressing consumer questions and concerns about opt-out notices, for, collectively, an estimated annual time burden of approximately 16,644 hours at an annual internal compliance cost of approximately $3,599,484. Thus, the staff estimates that the collection of information requires a total of approximately 12,262 respondents to incur an estimated total annual time burden of approximately 19,096 hours at a total annual internal cost of compliance of approximately $5,043,712.

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 November 30, 2022 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: October 25, 2022.

Sherry R. Haywood,

Assistant Secretary.