[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 20 (Wednesday, January 30, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4477-4479]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-2214]


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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-45315; File No. SR-OPRA-2001-05]


Options Price Reporting Authority; Notice of Filing and Immediate 
Effectiveness of Amendment to OPRA Plan To Revise OPRA's Fee Schedule 
To Reflect Changes to Various Fees

January 18, 2002.
    Pursuant to rule 11Aa3-2 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 
(``Act''),\1\ notice is hereby given that on December 11, 2001, the 
Options Price Reporting Authority (``OPRA''),\2\

[[Page 4478]]

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''). The proposed 
amendment would (i) increase certain fees charged by OPRA in respect of 
its Basic Service; (ii) expand the entitlement of professional 
subscribers that elect to pay OPRA's Enterprise Rate Professional 
Subscriber Fee in lieu of the device-based Professional Subscriber Fee 
by adding to the category of persons entitled to receive OPRA market 
data under the subscribers' Enterprise Rate plan independent investment 
advisers that contract with such subscribers to provide services to the 
subscriber's customers; and (iii) eliminate the ``Ratio Paging Service 
Fee'' as a separate usage-based fee, and clarify that radio paging and 
related types of services qualify for the ``dial-up'' usage-based fee, 
at the same rate. OPRA has designated the proposed OPRA Plan 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 and the proposal is, therefore, effective upon filing, 
pursuant to Rule 11Aa3-2(c)(3)(i) under the Act.\3\ The Commission is 
publishing this notice to solicit comments on the proposed OPRA Plan 
amendment from interested persons.
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    \1\ 17 CFR 240.11Aa3-2.
    \2\ OPRA is a national market system plan approved by the 
Commission pursuant to Section 11A of the Exchange Act, 15 U.S.C. 
78k-1, and Rule 11Aa3-2 thereunder, 17 CFR 240.11Aa3-2. See 
Securities Exchange Act Release No. 17638 (March 18, 1981), 22 
S.E.C. Docket 484 (March 31, 1981). 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 five 
signatories to the OPRA Plan that currently operate an options 
market are the American Stock Exchange, the Chicago Board Options 
Exchange, the International Securities Exchange, the Pacific 
Exchange, and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. The New Stock 
Exchange is a signatory to the OPRA Plan, but sold its options 
business to the Chicago Board Options Exchange in 1997. See 
Securities Exchange Act Release No. 38542 (April 23, 1997), 62 FR 
23521 (April 30, 1997).
    \3\ 17 CFR 240.11Aa3-2(c)(3)(i).
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I. Description and Purpose of the Amendment

    The text of the revised fee schedule is set forth below. Text 
additions are in italics, deletions are in brackets:

             Options Price Reporting Authority Fee Schedule
                      [Effective February 1, 2002]
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                Description                       Basic service \4\
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Direct Access Charge: A monthly fee payable  $1,000 [$750]
 by every person that has been authorized
 by OPRA to receive Options Information via
 the consolidated high-speed service from
 OPRA's processor. This charge includes one
 primary and one back-up circuit connection
 at the processor. Additional circuit
 connections are available at a monthly
 charge of $100 per connection.
Redistribution Fee: A monthly fee payable    $1,500
 by every vendor that redistributes Options  $650 [$600]
 Information to any person, whether on a     (Internet service only)
 current or delayed basis, except that this
 fee shall not apply to a vendor whose
 redistribution of Options Information is
 limited solely to ``historical'' Options
 Information, as that term is defined in
 the Vendor Agreement.
Dial-up Market Data Service Utilization      Usage-based fee at a rate
 Fee: A monthly fee, payable in arrears,      of $0.005 per ``quote
 consisting of a usage-based fee for each     packet'' or $0.02 per
 ``quote packet'' consisting of any one or    ``options chain'', subject
 more of the following values: last sale,     to a maximum fee of $1.00
 bid/ask, and related market data for a       on account of the use made
 single series of options or a related        in any month by any single
 index or, if elected in writing by vendor,   nonprofessional
 a usage-based fee for each ``options         subscriber.
 chain'' consisting of last sale, bid/ask,
 and related market data for up to all
 series of put and call options on the same
 underlying security or index, in each case
 as accessed over vendor's ``Dial-up Market
 Data Service [as an alternative to the
 port charge described above]. A vendor's
 ``Dial-up Market Data Service'' may
 consist of any wired or wireless private
 network or Internet-based communications
 system by means of which a vendor provides
 options market data to its customers
 subject to and in accordance with a ``Dial-
 up Market Data Service Rider'' to its
 Vendor Agreement. All inquiries shall be
 counted for purposes of calculating the
 usage-based fee, except that requests for
 ``historical'' information shall not be
 subject to charge. For this purpose,
 market information derived from a given
 trading day of an options market becomes
 ``historical'' upon the opening of trading
 on the next succeeding trading day of that
 market.
[Radio Paging Service Fee: A monthly fee,    [$1 per device, or usage-
 payable in arrears by every vendor that      based fee at a rate of
 offers a radio paging market data service,   $0.005 per ``quote
 for each text display paging device          packet'' or $0.02 per
 enabled to receive the service provided by   ``options chain''.]
 the vendor or by a radio paging company
 that receives options market data from the
 vendor. Alternatively, vendor may elect in
 writing to pay a usage-based fee for each
 ``quote packet'' consisting of any one or
 more of the following values: last sale,
 bid/ask, and related market data for a
 single series of options or a related
 index or, if elected in writing by vendor,
 a usage-based fee for each ``options
 chain'' consisting of last sale, bid/ask,
 and related market data for up to all
 series of put and call options on the same
 underlying security or index, in each case
 as accessed over vendor's Radio Paging
 Service, as an alternative to the device
 charge described above. All inquiries
 shall be counted for purposes of
 calculating the usage-based fee, except
 that requests for ``historical''
 information shall not be subject to
 charge. For this purpose, market
 information derived from a given trading
 day of an options market becomes
 ``historical'' upon the opening of trading
 on the next succeeding trading day of that
 market.].
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ OPRA's Basic Service does not include last sale and quotation
  information pertaining to foreign currency options. Subscribers who
  have access to FCO information are subject to a separate FCO Service
  subscriber fee.

    The purpose of the amendment is to increase certain fees charged by 
OPRA in respect of its Basic Service, to make minor editorial changes 
to the Basic Service fee schedule, and to expand the coverage of the 
Enterprise Rate Professional Subscriber Fee. Specifically, OPRA 
proposes to increase by approximately five percent the device-based 
information fee payable to OPRA by professional subscribers to OPRA's 
Basic Service, which consists of market data and related information 
pertaining to equity and index options (``OPRA data'').\5\ OPRA also 
proposes to increase from $750 to $1,000 OPRA's direct access charge 
(applicable to persons who receive OPRA data by means of a direct high-
speed connection to the OPRA Processor), and to increase from $600 to 
$650 OPRA's Internet-only redistribution fee (payable by persons who 
redistribute OPRA data solely by means of the Internet). OPRA also 
proposes to update the terminology used in the OPRA fee schedule by 
eliminating the ``Radio Paging Service Fee'' as a separate usage-based 
fee category, and by amending the description of OPRA's ``Dial-up 
Market

[[Page 4479]]

Data Service Utilization Fee'', which is a usage-based fee at the same 
rate as the radio paging fee, to make it clear that radio paging 
services and other types of wired and wireless network services, 
including Internet-based services, qualify for this usage-based fee. 
These terminology changes will have no effect on the fees paid to OPRA 
by any persons.
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    \5\ No changes are proposed to be made at this time to fees 
charged to vendors and subscribers for access to information 
pertaining to foreign currency options provided through OPRA's FCO 
Service.
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    The proposed increase in device-based professional subscriber fees 
ranges from 4.55% to 6.90% of the existing fees. Professional 
subscriber fees charged to members will continue to be discounted by 
two percent for members who preauthorize payment by electronic funds 
transfer through an automated clearinghouse system. OPRA estimates that 
the overall effect of the proposed increase in professional subscriber 
fees will be to increase revenues derived from professional subscriber 
fees by approximately five percent. Professional subscribers are those 
persons who subscribe to OPRA Data and do not qualify for the reduced 
fees charged to nonprofessional subscribers.
    As an alternative to device-based fees, professional subscribers 
may pay an Enterprise Rate Professional Subscriber Fee based on the 
number of their U.S. registered representatives. This amendment 
proposes to expand the entitlement of professional subscribers that 
elect to pay OPRA's Enterprise Rate Professional Subscriber Fee by 
allowing OPRA's Basic Service to be made available to independent 
investment advisers who contract with such subscribers to provide 
investment advisory services to the subscribers' customers. Heretofore 
such investment advisers have had to pay OPRA's regular, device-based 
professional subscriber fee in order to access OPRA data. All 
investment advisers who contract with an Enterprise Rate professional 
subscriber to provide investment advisory services to the subscriber's 
customers, and who will therefore be entitled to access OPRA data under 
the sponsorship of the subscriber, will be added to the subscriber's 
count of registered representatives for purposes of calculating the 
subscriber's Enterprise Rate Professional Subscriber Fee. No other 
changes are proposed to be made to the Enterprise Rate Professional 
Subscriber Fee.
    The proposed increases in the device-based professional subscriber 
fee, the direct access fee, and the Internet-only redistribution fee 
are intended to generate additional revenues for OPRA in order to cover 
actual and anticipated increases in the costs of collecting, 
consolidating, processing and disseminating options market. These 
increases reflect the costs of continuing enhancements to and upgrades 
of the OPRA system to enable it to handle a greater volume of market 
information as a result of the continuing expansion of listed options 
trading and the implementation of decimal pricing. The proposed 
expanded entitlement of Enterprise Rate subscribers to include 
independent investment advisers reflects the expanded utilization of 
independent investment advisers by retail brokerage firms, and is 
intended to lower the cost of access to OPRA data to those firms and to 
their independent investment advisers.

II. Implementation of the Plan Amendment

    OPRA represents that the proposed OPRA Plan amendment establishes 
or changes a fee or other charge collected on behalf of all of the OPRA 
participants in connection with access to or use of OPRA facilities and 
is, therefore, effective upon filing, pursuant to Rule 11Aa3-2(c)(3)(i) 
under the Act.\6\ In order to give persons subject to the fees advance 
notice of the changes, OPRA proposes to put them into effect commencing 
February 1, 2002. At any time within 60 days of the filing of the OPRA 
Plan amendment, the Commission may summarily abrogate the amendment and 
require that such amendment be filed in accordance with Rule 11Aa3-
2(b)(1) under the Act \7\ and reviewed in accordance with Rule 11Aa3-
2(c)(2) under the Act \8\ 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.
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    \6\ 17 CFR 240.11 Aa3-2(c)(3)(i).
    \7\ 17 CFR 240.11 Aa3-2(b)(1).
    \8\ 17 CFR 240.11 Aa3-2(c)(2).
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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. Persons making written 
submissions should file six copies thereof with the Secretary, 
Securities and Exchange Commission, 450 Fifth Street, NW, Washington, 
DC, 20549-0609. Copies of the submission, all subsequent amendments, 
and all written statements with respect to the proposed OPRA Plan 
amendment that are filed with the Commission, and all written 
communications relating to the proposed OPRA Plan amendment 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 will also be available at the principal offices of 
OPRA. All submissions should refer to File No. SR-OPRA-2001-05 and 
should be submitted by February 20, 2002.

    For the Commission, by the Division of Market Regulation, 
pursuant to delegated authority.\9\
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    \9\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(29).
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J. Lynn Taylor,
Assistant Secretary.
[FR Doc. 02-2214 Filed 1-29-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8010-01-M