[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 113 (Wednesday, June 12, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40356-40357]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-14776]


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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-46032; File No. SR-OPRA-2002-02]


Options Price Reporting Authority; Notice of Filing and Immediate 
Effectiveness of Amendment to OPRA Plan To Extend a Pilot To Permit 
Fee-Exempt Access to Market Data

June 5, 2002.
    Pursuant to Rule 11Aa3-2 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 
(``Act''),\1\ notice is hereby given that on May 31, 2002, the Options 
Price Reporting Authority (``OPRA'') \2\ 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 (``OPRA Plan''). The proposed OPRA Plan amendment 
would extend the pilot period during which off-floor market maker 
members of participant exchanges will be permitted to access options 
market data on a fee-exempt basis for an additional two years, until 
May 31, 2004, or such later date as OPRA may subsequently determine. 
The Commission is publishing this notice to solicit comments from 
interested persons on the proposed OPRA Plan amendment.
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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 Act and Rule 11Aa3-2 
thereunder. See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 17638 (Mar. 18, 
1981). The OPRA Plan provides for the collection and dissemination 
of last sale and quotation information on options that are traded on 
the member exchanges. The five participants to the OPRA Plan that 
operate an options market are the American Stock Exchange LLC, the 
Chicago Board Options Exchange, Inc. (``CBOE''), the International 
Securities Exchange LLC (``ISE''), the Pacific Exchange, Inc., and 
the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, Inc. The New York Stock Exchange, 
Inc. is a signatory to the OPRA Plan, but sold its options business 
to the CBOE in 1997. See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 38542 
(April 23, 1997), 62 FR 23521 (April 30, 1997).
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I. Description and Purpose of the Amendment

    Section VII(d)(vi) of the OPRA Plan provides that during a pilot 
period, the members of a floor-based exchange that is a party to the 
OPRA Plan who act in the capacity of brokers or dealers on the party's 
trading floor, and their counterparts on an electronic exchange that is 
a party to the OPRA Plan, are permitted to access options market 
information over the OPRA system without thereby becoming liable to pay 
OPRA's subscriber fees. In addition, Section VII(d)(vi) of the OPRA 
Plan provides that the pilot period will end ``on May 31, 2002, or on 
such later date as OPRA may determine.'' The purpose of the proposed 
amendment is to reflect the determination by OPRA to extend the 
expiration of the pilot period provided for in Section VII(d)(vi) of 
the OPRA Plan for an additional two years, until May 31, 2004, or such 
later date as OPRA may subsequently determine.
    This temporary exemption from subscriber fees was added to the OPRA 
Plan two years ago, when ISE was about to begin trading options in an 
entirely electronic market.\3\ The purpose of the exemption was to 
provide equal treatment for that exchange and its specialists and 
market-makers (and the off-floor specialists and market makers of any 
other electronic exchange or facility that may in the future be 
operated by an OPRA participant) so long as the floor-based 
counterparts of such members of electronic exchanges or facilities are 
not subject to subscriber fees. At the time the temporary fee exemption 
was adopted, OPRA had not decided on a permanent basis whether it would 
continue to exempt floor-based and off-floor specialists and market 
makers from OPRA fees, or whether it

[[Page 40357]]

would make all such persons subject to OPRA fees.
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    \3\ See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 43109 (August 2, 
2000), 65 FR 48769 (August 9, 2000).
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    OPRA still has not made a final decision concerning the permanent 
application of subscriber fees to floor-based members of participants 
or to their counterparts on electronic exchanges or facilities. 
Accordingly, in order to continue to provide equal treatment to floor-
based and electronic options markets and their members, OPRA has 
determined to continue this temporary exemption from OPRA fees for an 
additional two years, expiring on May 31, 2004, or on such later date 
as OPRA may subsequently determine. The effect of this is also to 
extend for an additional two years the fee exemption applicable to 
parties to the OPRA Plan that is provided for in Section V(f) of the 
OPRA Plan, because that exemption applies by its terms for the duration 
of the pilot period described in Section VII(d)(vi) of the OPRA Plan. 
The determination by OPRA reflected in this filing makes no change to 
any of the terms of these fee exemptions; it only extends the pilot 
period during which they apply.

II. Implementation of the OPRA Plan Amendment

    Pursuant to paragraph (c)(3)(i) of Rule 11Aa3-2,\4\ OPRA designates 
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. 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 11Aa3-
2(c)(2),\5\ 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.
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    \4\ 17 CFR 240.11Aa3-2(c)(3)(i).
    \5\ 17 CFR 240.11Aa3-2(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 also will be available at the principal offices of OPRA. All 
submissions should refer to File No. SR-OPRA-2002-02 and should be 
submitted by July 3, 2002.

    For the Commission, by the Division of Market Regulation, 
pursuant to delegated authority.\6\
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    \6\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(29).
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Margaret H. McFarland,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 02-14776 Filed 6-11-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8010-01-P