[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 116 (Friday, June 17, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Page 35314]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E5-3106]


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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Upon written request, copies available from: Securities and Exchange 
Commission, Office of Filings and Information Services, Washington, DC 
20549.

Extension:
    Rule 17d-1, SEC File No. 270-505, OMB Control No. 3235-0562.

    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 
(``Commission'') has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget 
(``OMB'') a request for extension of the previously approved collection 
of information discussed below.
    Section 17(d) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the ``Act'') 
prohibits first- and second-tier affiliates of a fund, the fund's 
principal underwriters, and affiliated persons of the fund's principal 
underwriters, acting as principal, to effect any transaction in which 
the fund or a company controlled by the fund is a joint or a joint and 
several participant in contravention of the Commission's rules. Rule 
17d-1 (``Applications regarding joint enterprises or arrangements and 
certain profit-sharing plans'' [17 CFR 270.17d-1]) permits a fund to 
enter into a joint arrangement with a portfolio affiliate (an issuer of 
which a fund owns a position in excess of five percent of the voting 
securities), or an affiliated person of a portfolio affiliate, as long 
as certain other affiliated persons of the fund (e.g., the fund's 
adviser, persons controlling the fund, and persons under common control 
with the fund) are not parties to the transaction and do not have a 
financial interest in a party to the transaction. Rule 17d-1 provides 
that, in addition to the interests identified in the rule not to be 
``financial interests,'' the term ``financial interest'' also does not 
include any interest that the fund's board of directors (including a 
majority of the directors who are not interested persons of the fund) 
finds to be not material. The rule requires that the minutes of the 
board's meeting record the basis for the board's finding.
    The information collection requirements in rule 17d-1 are intended 
to ensure that Commission staff can review, in the course of its 
compliance and examination functions, the basis for a board of 
director's finding that the financial interest of a prohibited 
participant in a party to a transaction with a portfolio affiliate is 
not material.
    Based on analysis of past filings, the Commission's staff estimates 
that 148 funds are affiliated persons of 668 issuers as a result of the 
fund's ownership or control of the issuer's voting securities, and that 
there are approximately 1,000 such affiliate relationships. Staff 
discussions with mutual fund representatives have suggested that no 
funds are currently relying on rule 17d-1 exemptions. We do not know 
definitively the reasons for this change in transactional behavior, but 
differing market conditions from year to year may offer some 
explanation for the current lack of fund interest in the exemptions 
under rule 17d-1. Accordingly, we estimate that annually there will be 
no joint transactions under rule 17d-1 that will result in a collection 
of information. The Commission requests authorization to maintain an 
inventory of one burden hour to ease future renewals of rule 17d-1 
collection of information analysis should reliance on the rule increase 
in the coming years.
    The estimate of average burden hours is made solely for the 
purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act. The estimate is not derived 
from a comprehensive or even a representative survey or study of the 
costs of Commission rules. Complying with this collection of 
information requirement is necessary to obtain the benefit of relying 
on rule 17d-1. 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 control number.
    General comments regarding the above information should be directed 
to the following persons: (i) Desk Officer for the Securities and 
Exchange Commission, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, 
Office of Management and Budget, Room 10102, New Executive Office 
Building, Washington, DC 20503 or email to: [email protected]; 
and (ii) R. Corey Booth, Director/Chief Information Officer, Office of 
Information Technology, Securities and Exchange Commission, 450 Fifth 
Street, NW., Washington, DC 20549. Comments must be submitted to OMB 
within 30 days of this notice.

    Dated: June 6, 2005.
J. Lynn Taylor,
Assistant Secretary.
[FR Doc. E5-3106 Filed 6-16-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8010-01-P