2021-04656. Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

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

Extension:

Rule 489 and Form F-N

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

Rule 489 (17 CFR 230.489) under the Securities Act of 1933 (15 U.S.C. 77a et seq.) requires foreign banks and foreign insurance companies and holding companies and finance subsidiaries of foreign banks and foreign insurance companies that are exempted from the definition of “investment company” by virtue of rules 3a-1 (17 CFR 270.3a-1), 3a-5 (17 CFR 270.3a-5), and 3a-6 (17 CFR 270.3a-6) under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a-1 et seq.) to file Form F-N (17 CFR 239.43) to appoint an agent for service of process when making a public offering of securities in the United States. The information is collected so that the Commission and private plaintiffs may serve process on foreign entities in actions and administrative proceedings arising out of or based on the offer or sales of securities in the United States by such foreign entities.

The Commission received an average of 27 Form F-N filings from 18 unique filers each year for the last three years (2017-2019). The Commission has previously estimated that the total annual burden associated with information collection and Form F-N preparation and submission is one hour per filing. Based on the Commission's experience with disclosure documents generally, the Commission continues to believe that this estimate is appropriate. Thus the estimated total annual burden for rule 489 and Form F-N is 27 hours.^[1]

Estimates of the average burden hours are made solely for the purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act and are not derived from a comprehensive or even a representative survey or study of the costs of Commission rules and forms. Compliance with the collection of information requirements of rule 489 and Form F-N is mandatory to obtain the benefit of the exemption. Responses to the collection of information will not be kept confidential. 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 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 within 30 days of publication of this notice to (i) www.reginfo.gov/​public/​do/​PRAMain and (ii) David Bottom, Director/Chief Information Officer, Securities and Exchange Commission, c/o Cynthia Roscoe, 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549, or by sending an email to: [e-mail].

Dated: March 2, 2021.

J. Matthew DeLesDernier,

Assistant Secretary.

Footnotes

1.  27 responses per year × 1 hour per response = 27 hours per year.