[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 214 (Monday, November 7, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67503-67504]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-22180]



[[Page 67503]]

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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-52710; File No. SR-OPRA-2005-03]


Options Price Reporting Authority; Notice of Filing of Proposed 
Amendment to the Plan for Reporting of Consolidated Options Last Sale 
Reports and Quotation Information To Provide That Classes of Foreign 
Currency Options Newly Introduced for Trading on the Philadelphia Stock 
Exchange Be Treated as Equity/Index Options During a Temporary Period 
Ending on December 31, 2007

November 1, 2005.
    Pursuant to Section 11A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 
(``Act'') \1\ and Rule 608 thereunder,\2\ notice is hereby given that 
on October 21, 2005, the Options Price Reporting Authority (``OPRA'') 
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'').\3\ The proposed OPRA 
Plan amendment would provide that classes of Foreign Currency Options 
(``FCO Securities'' or ``FCO''), newly introduced for trading on the 
PHLX during a temporary period ending no later than December 31, 2007, 
will be treated by OPRA as Equity/Index Options (``EIO Securities'' or 
``EIO'') to the extent described in the proposed amendment. The 
Commission is publishing this notice to solicit comments from 
interested persons on the proposed OPRA Plan amendment.
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    \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 six participants to the OPRA Plan are 
the American Stock Exchange LLC, the Boston Stock Exchange, Inc., 
the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Inc., the International 
Securities Exchange, Inc., the Pacific Exchange, Inc., and the 
Philadelphia Stock Exchange, Inc (``PHLX'').
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I. Description and Purpose of the Amendment

    FCO Securities under the OPRA Plan are currently traded only on the 
PHLX, which processes these options on a separate computer platform 
from its EIO Securities. The FCO platform is a legacy system, which is 
in the process of being converted to a newer technology. The PHLX has 
advised OPRA that it expects to have this effort completed no later 
than December 31, 2007, and that, in the meanwhile, the PHLX does not 
intend to devote resources to expanding the soon to be replaced legacy 
platform. Because the legacy FCO platform does not have the capacity to 
handle additional classes of FCO Securities that may be introduced for 
trading by the PHLX while the new platform is being developed, the PHLX 
has proposed to temporarily process any such new classes of FCO 
Securities on its EIO platform, which does have the capacity to handle 
them, until the new FCO platform is available. According to OPRA, this 
would mean that, while these new FCO Securities are on the EIO 
platform, their quotes and trade reports would be disseminated to OPRA 
over EIO data lines and not over the FCO data line. In turn, this would 
require OPRA to treat these quotes and trade reports as if they were 
EIO Securities. Thus, quotes and trade reports covering these new FCO 
Securities would be included in OPRA's basic service and not in its FCO 
service, and revenues and expenses pertaining to market data regarding 
these new FCO Securities would be allocated to OPRA's basic accounting 
center and further allocated among the parties to the OPRA Plan as if 
these products were EIO Securities and not FCO Securities.
    OPRA represents that all currently traded FCO products would 
continue to be disseminated on the current FCO data line, and would 
continue to be treated by OPRA as FCO Securities. Only newly traded FCO 
Securities would be treated as EIO Securities and only for a temporary 
period while the PHLX's upgraded FCO platform is being developed.
    At the PHLX's request, OPRA proposes to amend the OPRA Plan in 
order to codify in the language of the OPRA Plan the above-described 
temporary treatment of the PHLX's newly traded FCO Securities.
    The text of the proposed amendment to the OPRA Plan is set forth 
below. Text additions are in italics.
* * * * *
VIII. Financial Matters
* * * * *
    (c) FCO Accounting Center Costs and Revenues
    (i) and (ii) [No Change]
    (iii) Special Temporary Provision for Newly Traded FCO Securities. 
This paragraph (c)(iii) applies only to FCO Securities that are 
introduced for trading on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange (``PHLX'') 
during the period while this paragraph is in effect. FCO Securities 
introduced for trading by PHLX during this period are referred to as 
``New FCO Securities.''
    Notwithstanding anything in the Plan to the contrary, effective 
during a temporary period ending on December 31, 2007, or on such 
earlier date as may be established by the party or parties trading New 
FCO Securities, written notice of which shall be given to the other 
parties (``period of effectiveness''), access to information and 
facilities pertaining to New FCO Securities shall not be subject to the 
separate fees and charges that would otherwise apply to such access 
pertaining to FCO Securities, but instead shall be subject to those 
fees and charges that apply to Eligible Securities other than FCO 
Options and Index Options. During the period of effectiveness, revenues 
derived from New FCO Securities shall be allocated to OPRA's basic 
accounting center and shall be further allocated among the parties as 
described in section VIII(a)(iv), and trades in New FCO Index Options 
and not as trades in FCO Securities. At the close of business on the 
last day of the period of effectiveness, this section VIII(c)(iii) 
shall automatically terminate and cease to be of any further effect.
* * * * *

II. Implementation of the OPRA Plan Amendment

    The proposed amendment will be effective upon its approval by the 
Commission pursuant to Section 11A of the Act \4\ and Rule 608 
thereunder.\5\ OPRA states that the proposed amendment would apply to 
any new classes of FCO Securities introduced for trading on the PHLX 
during the period beginning at the time the proposed amendment is 
approved by the Commission and ending when the proposed amendment 
expires in accordance with its terms.
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    \4\ 15 U.S.C. 78k-1.
    \5\ 17 CFR 242.608.
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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. 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

[[Page 67504]]

No. SR-OPRA-2005-03 on the subject line.

Paper Comments

     Send paper comments in triplicate to Jonathan G. Katz, 
Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street, NE., 
Washington, DC 20549-9303. All submissions should refer to File Number 
SR-OPRA-2005-03. 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 inspection and copying in the Commission's Public 
Reference Room, 100 F Street, NE., Washington, DC 20549. 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-2005-03 and should be submitted on or before November 28, 2005.

    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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Jonathan G. Katz,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 05-22180 Filed 11-4-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8010-01-P