[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 27 (Thursday, February 9, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6800-6801]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-1779]


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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-53219; File No. SR-DTC-2005-21]


Self-Regulatory Organizations; The Depository Trust Company; 
Notice of Filing of Proposed Rule Change To Implement and Revise Fees 
Related to Non-Participant Services

February 3, 2006.
    Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 
(``Act''),\1\ notice is hereby given that on December 20, 2005, The 
Depository Trust Company (``DTC'') filed with the Securities and 
Exchange Commission (``Commission'') and on December 20, 2005, January 
23, 2006, and January 25, 2006,\2\ amended the proposed rule change as 
described in Items I, II, and III below, which items have been prepared 
by DTC. The Commission is publishing this notice to solicit comments on 
the proposed rule change as amended from interested parties.
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    \1\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(l).
    \2\ The proposed rule change filing was amended twice on January 
25, 2006.
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I. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Terms of Substance 
of the Proposed Rule Change

    DTC is seeking to (1) Revise fees for special requests for Security 
Position Reports (``SPRs'') and for weekly, monthly, and quarterly 
dividend record date SPR subscriptions,\3\ (2) revise existing fees for 
audit confirmations provided to issuers and their agents, and (3) 
implement new fees for (a) audit confirmations for certificates of 
deposit (``CDs'') provided to issuers and their agents and (b) access 
by transfer agents to DTC's imaging database.
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    \3\ Weekly reports, monthly reports, and quarterly dividend 
record date reports are available by annual subscription only.
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II. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Purpose of, and 
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change

    In its filing with the Commission, DTC included statements 
concerning the purpose of and basis for the proposed rule change and 
discussed any comments it received on the proposed rule change. The 
text of these statements may be examined at the places specified in 
Item IV below. DTC has prepared summaries, set forth in sections (A), 
(B), and (C) below, of the most significant aspects of these 
statements.\4\
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    \4\ The Commission has modified the text of the summaries 
prepared by DTC.
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(A) Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Purpose of, and 
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change

Fees for Issuance of Security Position Reports
    Several types of SPRs are available through DTC. These include: (1) 
Weekly reports showing daily closing positions during that week; (2) 
monthly reports showing closing positions on the last business day of 
the month; (3) quarterly dividend record date reports showing closing 
positions on the dividend record date; and (4) special requests showing 
closing positions for the date specified.
    DTC charges a fee for SPRs. Currently, the fee charged to issuers 
or trustees for weekly, monthly, and quarterly dividend record date SPR 
subscriptions is $1,950, $450, $150, respectively. The fee charged to 
issuers or trustees for special requests is $85. Under this filing, DTC 
formally seeks Commission approval of these fees. DTC incurs 
significantly higher costs for the production of special request SPRs 
relative to the costs of producing reports by subscription and because 
DTC has determined that a fee increase is necessary to more fully 
recover costs associated with such production, DTC proposes to increase 
the fee charged to issuers or trustees for special request SPRs to 
$120. The proposed increase will become effective on a date in the 
first quarter of 2006 to be announced by DTC upon the Commission's 
approval of this proposed rule change. The fees for weekly, monthly, 
and quarterly dividend record date SPR subscriptions will remain 
unchanged.
Fees Charged to Issuers/Agents
1. Audit Confirmations
    DTC receives frequent requests from issuers and/or their agents for 
confirmations of audit information relating to securities held by DTC. 
In connection with the processing of such requests for audit 
confirmations, DTC currently charges a fee of $10.00 per request 
containing up to and including five CUSIPs and $2.13 for each CUSIP 
beyond the fifth CUSIP. DTC also receives requests from issuers and/or 
their agents for confirmations relating to information concerning CDs 
deposited at DTC. A fee is not currently charged to process these CD 
audit confirmation requests. Providing issuers and/or their agents with 
audit confirmation information requires the allocation of significant 
resources to process the requests resulting in considerable cost to 
DTC. To more fully recover the costs associated with such audit 
confirmation

[[Page 6801]]

processing, DTC proposes to (1) Increase fees relating to processing of 
audit confirmations to $22 per request for requests of up to and 
including five CUSIPs and an additional $5.00 per item for each CUSIP 
beyond the fifth CUSIP and (2) implement fees for CD confirmation 
requests that are identical to those proposed for audit confirmation 
requests relating to securities. The proposed audit confirmation fees 
will be effective upon approval by the Commission.
2. Imaging
    DTC frequently receives requests from transfer agents for access to 
DTC's security image database to obtain copies of certificates 
deposited at DTC. DTC incurs significant costs to maintain the database 
but currently does not charge transfer agents for access to the 
database. Therefore, in order to recover costs associated with this 
function, DTC proposes to implement a new subscription fee of $350 per 
month for access to the DTC security image database. This fee will be 
effective upon approval by the Commission.\5\
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    \5\ DTC has separately filed a proposed rule change (File No. 
SR-DTC-2005-22) with the Commission to impose a subscription fee in 
the same amount on participants who subscribe for access to the DTC 
security image database.
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    DTC believes that the proposed rule change is consistent with the 
requirements of Section 17A of the Act \6\ and the rules and 
regulations thereunder applicable to DTC because it should provide for 
the equitable allocation of reasonable dues, fees, and other charges 
among the users of DTC's services.
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    \6\ 15 U.S.C. 28q-l.
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(B) Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement on Burden on Competition

    DTC does not believe that the proposed rule change will have any 
impact or impose any burden on competition.

(C) Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement on Comments on the 
Proposed Rule Change Received From Members, Participants or Others

    Written comments have not been solicited with respect to the 
proposed rule change, and none have been received.

III. Date of Effectiveness of the Proposed Rule Change and Timing for 
Commission Action

    Within thirty-five days of the date of publication of this notice 
in the Federal Register or within such longer period (i) as the 
Commission may designate up to ninety days of such date if it finds 
such longer period to be appropriate and publishes its reasons for so 
finding or (ii) as to which the self-regulatory organization consents, 
the Commission will:
    (A) By order approve such proposed rule change or
    (B) Institute proceedings to determine whether the proposed rule 
change should be disapproved.

IV. Solicitation of Comments

    Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views, and 
arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed rule 
change, as amended, 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 Number SR-DTC-2005-21 on the subject line.

Paper Comments

     Send paper comments in triplicate to Nancy M. Morris, 
Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street, NE., 
Washington, DC 20549-1090.

    All submissions should refer to File Number SR-DTC-2005-21. 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 rule change that 
are filed with the Commission, and all written communications relating 
to the proposed rule change 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 Section, 100 F Street, 
NE, Washington, DC 20549. Copies of such filing also will be available 
for inspection and copying at the principal office of DTC and on DTC's 
Web site at https://login.dtcc.com/dtcorg/. 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-DTC-2005-21 and should be submitted on 
or before March 2, 2006.

    For the Commission by the Division of Market Regulation, 
pursuant to delegated authority.\7\
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    \7\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(12).
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Nancy M. Morris,
Secretary.
 [FR Doc. E6-1779 Filed 2-8-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8010-01-P