[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 202 (Wednesday, October 20, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64753-64754]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-26340]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
[Release No. 34-63106; File No. SR-OPRA-2010-01]
Options Price Reporting Authority; Notice of Filing and Immediate
Effectiveness of Proposed Amendment To Identify the Securities Industry
Automation Corporation as OPRA's Independent System Capacity Advisor
October 14, 2010.
Pursuant to Section 11A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
(``Act'') \1\ and Rule 608 thereunder,\2\ notice is hereby given that
on September 29, 2010, the Options Price Reporting Authority (``OPRA'')
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\ The proposed amendment would
reflect the fact that OPRA has selected the Securities Industry
Automation Corporation (``SIAC'') to act as OPRA's ``Independent System
Capacity Advisor'' or ``ISCA'' commencing on October 1, 2010. The
Commission is publishing this notice to solicit comments from
interested persons on the proposed OPRA Plan amendment.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\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 eight participants to the OPRA Plan
are BATS Exchange, Inc., Chicago Board Options Exchange,
Incorporated, International Securities Exchange, LLC, NASDAQW OMX
BX, Inc., NASDAQ OMX PHLX, Inc., NASDAQ Stock Market LLC, NYSE Amex,
Inc., and NYSE Arca, Inc.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I. Description and Purpose of the Plan Amendment
In 2003, OPRA revised the manner in which it engages in capacity
planning and allocates capacity among the exchanges (``Exchanges'')
that are parties to the OPRA National Market System Plan (the ``OPRA
Plan'' or ``Plan'').\4\ As
[[Page 64754]]
part of that revision, OPRA amended the Plan to provide for an
``Independent System Capacity Advisor'' or ``ISCA.'' In essence, the
function of the ISCA is to receive, on a confidential basis, capacity
projections from each of the Exchanges and to use those projections to
determine whether and when to modify the system used by OPRA to
process, consolidate and distribute options Last Sale Reports and
Quotation Information and related information pursuant to the Plan, and
how the cost of such modifications is to be allocated among the
Exchanges.\5\ OPRA undertook in its Plan as amended in 2003 to file
with the Commission, for effectiveness upon filing, the identity of the
person or organization that it selected to act as ISCA.\6\ In 2003,
OPRA selected The Options Clearing Corporation (``OCC'') to act as the
ISCA, and OCC agreed to act in that capacity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ See Release No. 34-48822 (November 21, 2003), approving File
No. SR-OPRA-2003-01. OPRA reorganized as a limited liability company
effective as of January 1, 2010, and the current OPRA Plan is
entitled ``Limited Liability Company Agreement of Options Price
Reporting Authority, LLC.'' See Release No. 34-61367 (January 10,
2010), approving File No. SR-OPRA-2009-01, for a description of the
current OPRA Plan. The current OPRA Plan is available on OPRA's Web
site at http://www.opradata.com.
\5\ Release No. 34-48822 contains a more extensive description
of the functions performed by the ISCA.
\6\ This undertaking is in the definition of ``Independent
System Capacity Advisor'' in Section 1.1 of the OPRA Plan as
currently in effect: ``The identity of the person, persons or
organization selected to act as ISCA in accordance with the
foregoing shall be filed with the Commission as an amendment to
OPRA's national market system plan pursuant to Rule 11Aa3-2 under
the Exchange Act, eligible to be put into effect upon filing in
accordance with paragraph (c)(3) of that Rule.'' Rule 11Aa3-2 is now
Rule 608, and paragraph (c)(3) of Rule 11Aa3-2 is now paragraph
(b)(3) of Rule 608.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
OPRA and OCC have now agreed that OCC will cease to act as the ISCA
effective October 1, 2010. OPRA has selected SIAC to act as ISCA
commencing on October 1, 2010, and SIAC has agreed to act in that
capacity commencing on that date. SIAC is well known to OPRA since it
has for many years acted as OPRA's ``Processor'' and has, in that
capacity, provided the data processing services needed to develop,
operate and maintain the OPRA System.
As part of the revision of the OPRA Plan in 2003, OPRA adopted
``Capacity Guidelines'' set forth in an Attachment to, and incorporated
in, the Plan. The Capacity Guidelines provide guidance to the ISCA in
the performance of its functions. The Capacity Guidelines include a
requirement that the ISCA maintain internal safeguards and procedures
that are, among other things, ``sufficient to assure that confidential
information provided to the ISCA by the parties [i.e., the Exchanges]
is not shared with any of the other parties except in the form of
aggregate capacity requests or other aggregate information that does
not identify the individual capacity requests of any of the parties,
and to further assure that such information will not be used by the
ISCA in any of its other business activities in a manner that may
result in its being made available to any of the other parties or that
is otherwise inconsistent with the confidentiality of such
information.'' \7\ The Capacity Guidelines require that ``Prior to the
time it first exercises its authority under the Plan, the ISCA shall
have furnished a written description of these internal safeguards and
procedures to the Commission.'' \8\ OPRA has worked with SIAC to
develop appropriate internal safeguards and procedures that are
substantially similar to the safeguards and procedures maintained by
OCC, and has asked SIAC to furnish a written description of its
safeguards and procedures to the Commission prior to October 1, 2010.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ See the final paragraph of Guideline 1 in the Capacity
Guidelines.
\8\ See the final paragraph of Guideline 1 in the Capacity
Guidelines.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The text of the proposed amendment to the OPRA Plan is available at
OPRA, the Commission's Public Reference Room, http://opradata.com, and
on the Commission's Web site at http://www.sec.gov.
II. Implementation of the OPRA Plan Amendment
Pursuant to subparagraphs to (ii) and (iii) of paragraph (b)(3) of
Rule 608 under the Act,\9\ OPRA designated this amendment to be put
into effect upon filing with the Commission.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ 17 CFR 242.608(b)(3)(ii).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 \10\ if it
appears to the Commission that such action is necessary or appropriate
in the public interest, for the protection of investors, or 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\ 17 CFR 242.608(b)(2).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 [email protected]. Please include
File No. SR-OPRA-2010-01 on the subject line.
Paper Comments
Send paper comments in triplicate to Elizabeth M. Murphy,
Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street, NE.,
Washington, DC 20549-1090.
All submissions should refer to File Number SR-OPRA-2010-01. 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 Web site
viewing and printing 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-2010-01
and should be submitted on or before November 10, 2010.
For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets,
pursuant to delegated authority.\11\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\11\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(29).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Florence E. Harmon,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2010-26340 Filed 10-19-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011-01-P