2024-15823. Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Extension: Form N-5

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Securities and Exchange Commission

1. [SEC File No. 270-172, OMB Control No. 3235-0169]

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 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) is soliciting comments on the collection of information summarized below. The Commission plans to submit this existing collection of information to the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) for extension and approval.

Form N-5 (17 CFR 239.24 and 274.5) is the form used by small business investment companies (“SBICs”) to register their securities under the Securities Act of 1933 (15 U.S.C. 77a et seq.) (“Securities Act”) and the Investment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a-1 et seq.) (“Investment Company Act”). Form N-5 is the registration statement form adopted by the Commission for use by an SBIC that has been licensed as such under the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 or which has received the preliminary approval of the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) and has been notified by the SBA that the company may submit a license application Form N-5 is an integrated registration form and may be used as the registration statement under both the Securities Act and the Investment Company Act. The purpose of Form N-5 is to meet the filing and disclosure requirements of both the Securities Act and Investment Company Act, and to provide investors with information sufficient to evaluate an investment in an SBIC. The information that is required to be filed with the Commission permits verification of compliance with securities law requirements and assures the public availability and dissemination of the information.

The Commission did not receive any filings on Form N-5 in the last three years (or in the three years before that). Nevertheless, for purposes of this PRA, we conservatively estimate that at least one Form N-5 will be filed in the next three years, which translates to about 0.333 filings on Form N-5 per year. The currently approved internal burden of Form N-5 is 352 hours per response. We continue to believe this estimate for Form N-5's internal hour burden is appropriate. Therefore, the number of currently approved aggregate burden hours, when calculated using the current estimate for number of filings, is about 117 internal hours per year. The currently approved external cost burden of Form N-5 is $12,524per filing. The requested external cost burden for filing one Form N-5 would be $14,746 per year. This estimated burden is based on the estimated wage rate of $584/hour, for 25.25 hours, for outside legal services to complete the form and provide the required hyperlinks.

Estimates of average burden hours and costs are made solely for the purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act, and are not derived from a comprehensive or even representative survey or study of the costs of Commission rules and forms. Compliance with the collection of information requirements of Form N-5 is mandatory. 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.

Written comments are invited on: (a) whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Commission, including whether the information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the Commission's estimate of the burden of the collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology. Consideration will be given to comments and suggestions submitted by September 16, 2024.

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.

Please direct your written comments to: Austin Gerig, Director/Chief Data Officer, Securities and Exchange Commission, c/o Oluwaseun Ajayi, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549 or send an email to: [e-mail].

Dated: July 15, 2024.

J. Matthew DeLesDernier,

Deputy Secretary.