E8-8927. Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

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

Extension:

Rule 12d3-1, SEC File No. 270-504, OMB Control No. 3235-0561.

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 (“Commission”) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget a request for extension of the previously approved collection of information discussed below.

Section 12(d)(3) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a) generally prohibits registered investment companies (“funds”), and companies controlled by funds, from purchasing securities issued by a registered investment adviser, broker, dealer, or underwriter (“securities-related businesses”). Rule 12d3-1 (“Exemption of acquisitions of securities issued by persons engaged in securities related businesses” (17 CFR 270.12d3-1)) permits a fund to invest up to five percent of its assets in securities of an issuer deriving more than fifteen percent of its gross revenues from securities-related businesses, but a fund may not rely on rule 12d3-1 to acquire securities of its own investment adviser or any affiliated person of its own investment adviser.

A fund may, however, rely on an exemption in rule 12d3-1 to acquire securities issued by its subadvisers in circumstances in which the subadviser would have little ability to take advantage of the fund, because it is not in a position to direct the fund's securities purchases. The exemption in rule 12d3-1 is available if (i) the subadviser is not, and is not an affiliated person of, an investment adviser that provides advice with respect to the portion of the fund that is acquiring the securities, and (ii) the advisory contracts of the subadviser, and any subadviser that is advising the purchasing portion of the fund, prohibit them from consulting with each other concerning securities transactions of the fund, and limit their responsibility in providing advice with respect to discrete portions of the fund's portfolio.

The Commission staff estimates that 3,583 portfolios, of approximately 649 fund complexes, use the services of one or more subadvisers. Based on discussions with industry representatives, the staff estimates that it requires approximately 6 hours to draft and execute revised subadvisory contracts allowing funds and subadvisers to rely on the exemptions in rule 12d3-1.^[1] The staff assumes that all existing funds amended their advisory contracts following amendments to rule 12d3-1 in 2002 that conditioned certain exemptions upon these contractual alterations, and therefore there is no continuing burden for those funds.^[2]

Based on an analysis of fund filings, the staff estimates that approximately 600 fund portfolios enter into subadvisory agreements each year.^[3] Based on discussions with industry representatives, the staff estimates that it will require approximately 3 attorney hours ^[4] to draft and execute additional clauses in new subadvisory contracts in order for funds and subadvisers to be able to rely on the exemptions in rule 12d3-1. Because these additional clauses are identical to the clauses that a fund would need to insert in their subadvisory contracts to rely on rules 10f-3, 17a-10, and 17e-1, and because we believe that funds that use one such rule generally use all of these rules, we apportion this 3 hour time burden equally to all four rules. Therefore, we estimate that the burden allocated to rule 12d3-1 for this contract change would be 0.75 hours.^[5] Assuming that all 600 funds that enter into new subadvisory contracts each year make the modification to their contract required by the rule, we estimate that the rule's contract modification requirement will result in 450 burden hours annually, with an associated cost of approximately $131,400.^[6]

The estimate of average burden hours is made solely for the purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act. The estimate is not derived from a comprehensive or even a representative survey or study of the costs of Commission rules. Complying with this collection of information requirement is necessary to obtain the benefit of relying on rule 12d3-1. Responses 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 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 e-mail to: [e-mail]; and (ii) R. Corey Booth, Director/Chief Information Officer, Securities and Exchange Commission, C/O Shirley Martinson, 6432 General Green Way, Alexandria, VA 22312; or send an e-mail to: [e-mail]. Comments must be submitted to OMB within 30 days of this notice.

Dated: April 18, 2008.

Florence E. Harmon,

Deputy Secretary.

Footnotes

1.  Rules 12d3-1, 10f-3, 17a-10, and 17e-1 require virtually identical modifications to fund advisory contracts. The Commission staff assumes that funds would rely equally on the exemptions in these rules, and therefore the burden hours associated with the required contract modifications should be apportioned equally among the four rules.

2.  We assume that funds formed after 2002 that intended to rely on rule 12d3-1would have included the contract provision in their initial subadvisory contracts.

3.  The use of subadvisers has grown rapidly over the last several years, with approximately 600 portfolios that use subadvisers registering between December 2005 and December 2006. Based on information in Commission filings, we estimate that 31 percent of funds are advised by subadvisers.

4.  The Commission staff's estimates concerning the wage rates for attorney time are based on salary information for the securities industry compiled by the Securities Industry Association. The $292 per hour figure for an attorney is from the SIA Report on Management & Professional Earnings in the Securities Industry 2006, modified to account for an 1800-hour work-year and multiplied by 5.35 to account for bonuses, firm size, employee benefits and overhead.

5.  This estimate is based on the following calculation (3 hours ÷ 4 rules = .75 hours).

6.  These estimates are based on the following calculations: (0.75 hours × 600 portfolios = 450 burden hours); ($292 per hour × 450 hours = $131,400 total cost).