

[Federal Register: December 18, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 242)]
[Notices]               
[Page 71722-71723]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr18de07-76]                         

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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-56950; File No. SR-OPRA-2007-04]

 
Options Price Reporting Authority; Notice of Filing and Immediate 
Effectiveness of Proposed Amendment To Revise OPRA's Fee Schedule

December 12, 2007.
    Pursuant to Section 11A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 
(``Act'')\1\ and Rule 608 thereunder,\2\ notice is hereby given that on 
October 16, 2007 the Options Price Reporting Authority (``OPRA'') 
submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') an 
amendment to the Plan for Reporting of Consolidated Options Last Sale 
Reports and Quotation Information (``OPRA Plan'').\3\ Specifically, 
OPRA proposes to revise the device-based professional subscriber fees 
charged by OPRA in respect of its Basic Service. Similarly, the 
proposal would make a conforming change to OPRA's Enterprise Rate 
Professional Subscriber Fee (``Enterprise Rate''). On November 14, 
2007, OPRA submitted a revised Exhibit I, which it requested be 
substituted for the Exhibit I attached to the original filing.\4\ On 
December 11, 2007, OPRA submitted a further revised Exhibit I, which it 
asked be substituted for the Exhibit I submitted on November 14, 
2007.\5\ The Commission is publishing this notice to solicit comments 
from interested persons on the proposed OPRA Plan amendment.
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    \1\ 15 U.S.C. 78k-1.
    \2\ 17 CFR 242.608.
    \3\ The OPRA Plan is a national market system plan approved by 
the Commission pursuant to Section 11A of the Act and Rule 608 
thereunder (formerly Rule 11Aa3-2). See Securities Exchange Act 
Release No. 17638 (March 18, 1981), 22 S.E.C. Docket 484 (March 31, 
1981). The full text of the OPRA Plan is available at http://www.opradata.com
.

    The OPRA Plan provides for the collection and dissemination of 
last sale and quotation information on options that are traded on 
the participant exchanges. The six participants to the OPRA Plan are 
the American Stock Exchange LLC, the Boston Stock Exchange, Inc., 
the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Incorporated, the International 
Securities Exchange, Inc. (``ISE''), the NYSE Arca, Inc., and the 
Philadelphia Stock Exchange, Inc. (``Phlx'').
    \4\ The second revised Exhibit I reflects technical changes and 
sets forth the entire OPRA Fee Schedule. As originally filed, 
Exhibit I included only that portion of the OPRA Fee Schedule 
pertaining to OPRA's professional subscriber fees.
    \5\ The revised Exhibit I made technical changes to the prior 
version of Exhibit I and corrected an outdated reference to the 
``NASD,'' which is now called ``FINRA.''
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I. Description and Purpose of the Amendment

    The purpose of the amendment is to make incremental increases in 
OPRA's device-based professional subscriber fees in respect of its 
Basic Service and in respect of the Enterprise Rate charged to those 
subscribers who elect that rate in place of device-based fees. These 
increases would be phased in over a three-year period. Specifically, 
OPRA proposes to increase the current $20 monthly per device fee by 
$1.00 in each of the years 2008, 2009, and 2010. OPRA also proposes to 
increase the Enterprise Rate, currently a monthly fee of $20 times the 
number of a subscriber's U.S.-based registered representatives, by this 
same amount in each of these years. These increases would become 
effective on January 1 of each year.
    OPRA's Basic Service currently consists of market data and related 
information pertaining to equity options, index options, and most (soon 
to be all) foreign currency options (``OPRA Data'').\6\ Professional 
subscribers are persons who subscribe to receive OPRA Data and do not 
qualify for the reduced fees charged to nonprofessional subscribers. 
OPRA's Enterprise Rate is based on the number of a professional 
subscriber's U.S.-based registered representatives and independent 
investment advisers who contract with the subscriber to provide 
advisory services to the subscriber's customers.
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    \6\ Commencing January 1, 1996, OPRA data pertaining to foreign 
currency options (``FCOs'') was made subject to separate FCO Service 
access fees. However, pursuant to an exception for FCOs first listed 
on any exchange on or after December 6, 2005, these separate access 
fees do not currently apply to most of the FCOs traded on the Phlx, 
or to any of the FCOs traded on the ISE, which are the only two 
exchanges currently providing a market in FCOs. OPRA has recently 
filed a Plan amendment (SR-OPRA-2007-03) that proposes the 
elimination of all remaining separate access fees for FCOs. Upon the 
effectiveness of that amendment, which OPRA anticipates will occur 
no later than March 14, 2008, access to market information 
pertaining to all FCOs would be included within OPRA's Basic Service 
and would require payment only of OPRA's Basic Service access fees.
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    The proposed increases in the device-based professional subscriber 
fees and in the Enterprise Rate are intended to generate additional 
revenues for OPRA and its participating exchanges that are needed to 
cover actual and anticipated increases in the costs of collecting, 
consolidating, processing, and disseminating options market

[[Page 71723]]

information and assuring the reliability and integrity of that 
information. According to OPRA, these increases reflect the costs of 
continuing enhancements to and upgrades of the OPRA system and related 
exchange systems since the time these fees were last adjusted in order 
to enable OPRA, its participant exchanges, and its vendors to handle a 
greater volume of market information as a result of the continuing 
expansion of listed options trading and to provide a greater degree of 
redundancy and security in the OPRA system. Past and projected 
expansion of options trading reflects such factors as an increase in 
the number of exchanges that trade options and in the number of options 
classes and series traded on each exchange, and actual and anticipated 
growth in the number of quotes on account of the ongoing implementation 
of quoting in penny intervals. The fee increases also take into account 
the loss of revenue on account of the elimination of separate fees for 
access to OPRA's FCO Service.\7\ OPRA estimates that the overall effect 
of the proposed increases in professional subscriber fees would be to 
increase revenues derived from these fees by approximately 5% in each 
of the three years covered by the proposal, before giving effect to the 
elimination of the FCO access fee upon the discontinuation of OPRA's 
separate FCO Service.
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    \7\ See id.
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    The text of the proposed amendment to the OPRA Plan is available at 
OPRA, the Commission's Public Reference Room, and http://opradata.com.


II. Implementation of the OPRA Plan Amendment

    Pursuant to paragraph (b)(3)(i) of Rule 608 under the Act, \8\ OPRA 
designated this amendment as establishing or changing a fee or other 
charge collected on behalf of all of the OPRA participants in 
connection with access to, or use of, OPRA facilities, thereby 
qualifying for effectiveness upon filing. In order to give persons 
subject to these fees advance notice of the changes, the first of these 
fee changes is not proposed to be implemented until January 1, 2008.
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    \8\ 17 CFR 242.608(b)(3)(i).
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    The Commission may summarily abrogate the amendment within sixty 
days of its filing and require refiling and approval of the amendment 
by Commission order pursuant to Rule 608(b)(2) under the Act \9\ if it 
appears to the Commission that such action is necessary or appropriate 
in the public interest, for the protection of investors and the 
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. \10\
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    \9\ 17 CFR 242.608(b)(2).
    \10\ For purposes of calculating the 60-day period within which 
the Commission may summarily abrogate the proposed rule change 
pursuant to Rule 608(b)(3) under the Act, the Commission considers 
the period to commence on December 11, 2007, the date on which OPRA 
submitted the second revised Exhibit I. See 17 CFR 242.608(b)(3).
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III. Solicitation of Comments

    Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views, and 
arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed OPRA 
Plan amendment is consistent with the Act. Comments may be submitted by 
any of the following methods:

Electronic Comments:

     Use the Commission's Internet comment form (http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml.
); or     Send an e-mail to rule-comments@sec.gov. Please include 

File No. SR-OPRA-2007-04 on the subject line.

Paper Comments:

     Send paper comments in triplicate to Nancy M. Morris, 
Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street, NE., 
Washington, DC 20549-1090.

All submissions should refer to File Number SR-OPRA-2007-04. This file 
number should be included on the subject line if e-mail is used. To 
help the Commission process and review your comments more efficiently, 
please use only one method. The Commission will post all comments on 
the Commission's Internet Web site (http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml
). Copies of the submission, all subsequent amendments, all 

written statements with respect to the proposed plan amendment that are 
filed with the Commission, and all written communications relating to 
the proposed plan amendment between the Commission and any person, 
other than those that may be 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, 100 F Street, 
NE., Washington, DC 20549, on official business days between the hours 
of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Copies of such filing also will be available for 
inspection and copying at the principal office of OPRA. All comments 
received will be posted without change; the Commission does not edit 
personal identifying information from submissions. You should submit 
only information that you wish to make available publicly. All 
submissions should refer to File Number SR-OPRA-2007-04 and should be 
submitted on or before January 8, 2008.

    For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, 
pursuant to delegated authority.\11\
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    \11\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(29).
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Florence E. Harmon,
Deputy Secretary.
 [FR Doc. E7-24485 Filed 12-17-07; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 8011-01-P
