[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 116 (Friday, June 17, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35320-35321]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E5-3127]


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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 17a-6, SEC File No. 270-506, OMB Control No. 3235-
0564.

    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(a) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the ``Act''), 
prohibits affiliated persons of a registered investment company 
(``fund'') from borrowing money or other property from, or selling or 
buying securities or other property to or from the fund, or any company 
that the fund controls. Rule 17a-6 permits a fund and its ``portfolio 
affiliates'' (an issuer of which a fund owns more than five percent of 
the voting securities) to engage in principal transactions with if no 
prohibited participants (e.g., directors, officers, employees, or 
investment advisers of the fund contain persons controlling and under 
common control with the fund, and their affiliates) are

[[Page 35321]]

parties to the transaction or have a direct or indirect financial 
interest in the transaction. Rule 17a-6 specifies certain interests 
that are not ``financial interests.'' The rule also provides that the 
term ``financial interest'' 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, as 
long as the board records the basis for the findings in its meeting 
minutes.
    The information collection requirements in rule 17a-6 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, Commission 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 currently rely on rule 17a-6 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 17a-6. Accordingly, we estimate that annually there will be 
no principal transactions under rule 17a-6 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 17a-6's collection of 
information analysis should reliance on rule 17a-6 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 17a-6. 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. E5-3127 Filed 6-16-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8010-01-P