2012-30224. Fees for Reviews of the Rule Enforcement Programs of Designated Contract Markets and Registered Futures Associations

AGENCY:

Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

ACTION:

Notice of FY 2012 schedule of fees.

SUMMARY:

The Commission charges fees to designated contract markets and registered futures associations to recover the costs incurred by the Commission in the operation of its program of oversight of self-regulatory organization rule enforcement programs, specifically National Futures Association, a registered futures association, and the designated contract markets. The calculation of the fee amounts charged for FY 2012 by this notice is based upon an average of actual program costs incurred during FY 2009, 2010, and 2011.

DATES:

Effective Date: Each SRO is required to remit electronically the fee applicable to it on or before February 12, 2013.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Mark Carney, Chief Financial Officer, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, [phone], Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street NW., Washington, DC 20581. For information on electronic payment, contact Jennifer Fleming, Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street NW., Washington, DC 20581, [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background Information

A. General

This notice relates to fees for the Commission's review of the rule enforcement programs at the registered futures associations ^[1] and designated contract markets (DCM) each of which is a self-regulatory organization (SRO) regulated by the Commission. The Commission recalculates the fees charged each year to cover the costs of operating this Commission program.^[2] All costs are accounted for by the Commission's Budget Program Activity Codes (BPAC) system, formerly the Management Accounting Structure Codes (MASC) system, which records each employee's time for each pay period. The fees are set each year based on direct program costs, plus an overhead factor. The Commission calculates actual costs, then calculates an alternate fee taking volume into account, then charges the lower of the two.^[3]

B. Overhead Rate

The fees charged by the Commission to the SROs are designed to recover program costs, including direct labor costs and overhead. The overhead rate is calculated by dividing total Commission-wide overhead direct program labor costs into the total amount of the Commission-wide overhead pool. For this purpose, direct program labor costs are the salary costs of personnel working in all Commission programs. Overhead costs consist generally of the following Commission-wide costs: indirect personnel costs (leave and benefits), rent, communications, contract services, utilities, equipment, and supplies. This formula has resulted in the following overhead rates for the most recent three years (rounded to the nearest whole percent): 147 percent for fiscal year 2009, 153 percent for fiscal year 2010, and 145 percent for fiscal year 2011.

C. Conduct of SRO Rule Enforcement Reviews

Under the formula adopted by the Commission in 1993, the Commission calculates the fee to recover the costs of its rule enforcement reviews and examinations, based on the three-year average of the actual cost of performing such reviews and examinations at each SRO. The cost of operation of the Commission's SRO oversight program varies from SRO to SRO, according to the size and complexity of each SRO's program. The three-year averaging computation method is intended to smooth out year-to-year variations in cost. Timing of the Commission's reviews and examinations may affect costs—a review or examination may span two fiscal years and reviews and examinations are not conducted at each SRO each year.

As noted above, adjustments to actual costs may be made to relieve the burden on an SRO with a disproportionately large share of program costs. The Commission's formula provides for a reduction in the assessed fee if an SRO has a smaller percentage of United States industry contract volume than its percentage of overall Commission oversight program costs. This adjustment reduces the costs so that, as a percentage of total Commission SRO oversight program costs, they are in line with the pro rata percentage for that SRO of United States industry-wide contract volume.

The calculation is made as follows: The fee required to be paid to the Commission by each DCM is equal to the lesser of actual costs based on the three-year historical average of costs for that DCM or one-half of average costs incurred by the Commission for each DCM for the most recent three years, plus a pro rata share (based on average trading volume for the most recent three years) of the aggregate of average annual costs of all DCMs for the most recent three years. The formula for calculating the second factor is: 0.5a + 0.5 vt = current fee. In this formula, “a” equals the average annual costs, “v” equals the percentage of total volume across DCMs over the last three years, and “t” equals the average annual costs for all DCMs. NFA has no contracts traded; hence, its fee is based simply on costs for the most recent three fiscal years. This table summarizes the data used in the calculations of the resulting fee for each entity:

An example of how the fee is calculated for one exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade, is set forth here:

a. Actual three-year average costs equal $78,553.

b. The alternative computation is: (.5) ($78,553) + (.5) (.274) ($1,340,083) = $222,868.

c. The fee is the lesser of a or b; in this case $78,553.

As noted above, the alternative calculation based on contracts traded is not applicable to NFA because it is not a DCM and has no contracts traded. The Commission's average annual cost for conducting oversight review of the NFA rule enforcement program during fiscal years 2009 through 2011 was $577,549 (one-third of $1,732,647). The fee to be paid by the NFA for the current fiscal year is $577,549.

II. Schedule of Fees

Therefore, fees for the Commission's review of the rule enforcement programs at the registered futures associations and DCMs regulated by the Commission are as follows:

	2012 fee lesser of actual or calculated fee
CBOE Futures	$17,611
Chicago Board of Trade	78,553
Chicago Climate Exchange	497
Chicago Mercantile Exchange	548,855
ICE Futures U.S.	88,143
Kansas City Board of Trade	44,642
Minneapolis Grain Exchange	35,730
New York Mercantile Exchange	227,640
New York LIFFE	71,111
Subtotal	1,112,781
National Futures Association	577,549
Total	1,690,330

III. Payment Method

The Debt Collection Improvement Act (DCIA) requires deposits of fees owed to the government by electronic transfer of funds (See 31 U.S.C. 3720). For information about electronic payments, please contact Jennifer Fleming at [phone] or [e-mail], or see the CFTC Web site at www.cftc.gov,, specifically, www.cftc.gov/​cftc/​cftcelectronicpayments.htm.

Issued in Washington, DC on this 11th day of December 2012, by the Commission.

Sauntia S. Warfield,

Assistant Secretary of the Commission.

Footnotes

1.  NFA is the only registered futures association.

2.  See section 237 of the Futures Trading Act of 1982, 7 U.S.C. 16a, and 31 U.S.C. 9701. For a broader discussion of the history of Commission fees, see 52 FR 46070, Dec. 4, 1987.

3.  58 FR 42643, Aug. 11, 1993 and 17 CFR part 1, app. B.