[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 140 (Friday, July 22, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-17862]
[[Page Unknown]]
[Federal Register: July 22, 1994]
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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
[Release No. 34-34391; File No. S7-8-90]
Options Price Reporting Authority; Notice of Filing and Immediate
Effectiveness of an Amendment to the National market System Plan of
OPRA Relating to Exemptions form OPRA's Indirect Access Fee for Certain
Subscribers
July 15, 1994.
Pursuant to Rule 11Aa3-2 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
(``Act''), notice is hereby given that on June 27, 1994, the Options
Price Reporting Authority (``OPRA'') submitted to the Securities and
Exchange Commission (``SEC'' or ``Commission'') an amendment to the
Plan for Reporting of Consolidated Options Last Sale Reports and
Quotation Information (``Plan''), exempting from OPRA's Indirect Access
Fee those subscribers who receive a data feed transmission of options
market information from an OPRA vendor on a single stand-alone computer
for the sole purpose of providing a single-screen display of options
information for the subscriber's own internal use. OPRA has designated
this proposal as concerned solely with an existing fee, permitting it
to become effective upon filing, pursuant to Rule 11Aa3-2(c)(3)(ii)
under the Act. The Commission is publishing this notice to solicit
comments from interested persons on the amendment.
I. Description and Purpose of the Amendment
The purpose of the proposed amendment is to respond to recent and
ongoing changes in computer and communications technology that have
resulted in an ever greater number of OPRA subscribers choosing to
receive options information in the form of a bulk data feed
transmission from a vendor, rather than as a vendor-controlled
interrogation or display service. At the time the Subscriber Indirect
Access Fee was first adopted, only a relatively few large subscribers
received a data feed transmission, usually to serve multiple terminals
in a network. The Subscribers Indirect Access Fee was intended to
allocate to these subscribers OPRA's higher administrative costs
associated with providing access to subscribers whose terminal
population is not under vendor control. Recent changes in computer and
communications technology have now made it cost effective for an
increasing number of smaller OPRA subscribers to access options market
information by means of vendor-provided, data-feed transmissions
received on a single computer terminal. Since such single-device data-
feed subscribers do not subject OPRA to the higher costs associated
with multiple device counts and entitlements, OPRA has determined that
it would more fairly allocated its costs through the fees charged to
various categories of users of options market information to exempt
such single-device data feed subscribers from the Subscriber Indirect
Access Fee. Such subscribers will continue to be subject to OPRA's
basic Subscriber Fee, and the Indirect Access Fee will continue to
apply to multiple terminal users of data feed transmissions.
II. Solicitation of Comments
Pursuant to Rule 11Aa3-2(c)(3), the amendment is effective upon
filing with the Commission. The Commission may summarily abrogate the
amendment within 60 days of its filing and require refiling and
approval of the amendment by Commission order pursuant to Rule 11Aa3-
2(c)(2), if it appears to the Commission that such action is necessary
or appropriate in the public interest, for the protection of investors
and maintenance of fair and orderly markets, to remove impediments to
and perfect the mechanisms of a National Market System, or otherwise in
furtherance of the purposes of the Act.
Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views and
arguments concerning the foregoing. Persons making written submissions
should file six copies thereof with the Secretary, Securities and
Exchange Commission, 450 Fifth Street NW., Washington, DC 20549. Copies
of the submission, all subsequent amendments, all written statements
with respect to the proposed rule change that are filed with the
Commission, and all written communications relating to the proposed
extension that are filed with Commission, and all written
communications relating to the proposed extension between the
Commission and any person, other than those withheld from the public in
accordance with the provisions of 5 U.S.C. 552, will be available for
inspection and copying in the Commission's Public Reference Room.
Copies of the filing also will be available at the principal office of
OPRA. All submissions should refer to File No. S7-8-90 and should be
submitted by [insert date 21 days from the date of publication].
For the Commission, by the Division of Market Regulation, pursuant
to delegated authority, 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(29).
Margaret H. McFarland,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 94-17862 Filed 7-21-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8010-01-M
