[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 202 (Wednesday, October 20, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64753-64754]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-26340]


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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-63106; File No. SR-OPRA-2010-01]


Options Price Reporting Authority; Notice of Filing and Immediate 
Effectiveness of Proposed Amendment To Identify the Securities Industry 
Automation Corporation as OPRA's Independent System Capacity Advisor

October 14, 2010.
    Pursuant to Section 11A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 
(``Act'') \1\ and Rule 608 thereunder,\2\ notice is hereby given that 
on September 29, 2010, the Options Price Reporting Authority (``OPRA'') 
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 amendment would 
reflect the fact that OPRA has selected the Securities Industry 
Automation Corporation (``SIAC'') to act as OPRA's ``Independent System 
Capacity Advisor'' or ``ISCA'' commencing on October 1, 2010. 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 eight participants to the OPRA Plan 
are BATS Exchange, Inc., Chicago Board Options Exchange, 
Incorporated, International Securities Exchange, LLC, NASDAQW OMX 
BX, Inc., NASDAQ OMX PHLX, Inc., NASDAQ Stock Market LLC, NYSE Amex, 
Inc., and NYSE Arca, Inc.
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I. Description and Purpose of the Plan Amendment

    In 2003, OPRA revised the manner in which it engages in capacity 
planning and allocates capacity among the exchanges (``Exchanges'') 
that are parties to the OPRA National Market System Plan (the ``OPRA 
Plan'' or ``Plan'').\4\ As

[[Page 64754]]

part of that revision, OPRA amended the Plan to provide for an 
``Independent System Capacity Advisor'' or ``ISCA.'' In essence, the 
function of the ISCA is to receive, on a confidential basis, capacity 
projections from each of the Exchanges and to use those projections to 
determine whether and when to modify the system used by OPRA to 
process, consolidate and distribute options Last Sale Reports and 
Quotation Information and related information pursuant to the Plan, and 
how the cost of such modifications is to be allocated among the 
Exchanges.\5\ OPRA undertook in its Plan as amended in 2003 to file 
with the Commission, for effectiveness upon filing, the identity of the 
person or organization that it selected to act as ISCA.\6\ In 2003, 
OPRA selected The Options Clearing Corporation (``OCC'') to act as the 
ISCA, and OCC agreed to act in that capacity.
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    \4\ See Release No. 34-48822 (November 21, 2003), approving File 
No. SR-OPRA-2003-01. OPRA reorganized as a limited liability company 
effective as of January 1, 2010, and the current OPRA Plan is 
entitled ``Limited Liability Company Agreement of Options Price 
Reporting Authority, LLC.'' See Release No. 34-61367 (January 10, 
2010), approving File No. SR-OPRA-2009-01, for a description of the 
current OPRA Plan. The current OPRA Plan is available on OPRA's Web 
site at http://www.opradata.com.
    \5\ Release No. 34-48822 contains a more extensive description 
of the functions performed by the ISCA.
    \6\ This undertaking is in the definition of ``Independent 
System Capacity Advisor'' in Section 1.1 of the OPRA Plan as 
currently in effect: ``The identity of the person, persons or 
organization selected to act as ISCA in accordance with the 
foregoing shall be filed with the Commission as an amendment to 
OPRA's national market system plan pursuant to Rule 11Aa3-2 under 
the Exchange Act, eligible to be put into effect upon filing in 
accordance with paragraph (c)(3) of that Rule.'' Rule 11Aa3-2 is now 
Rule 608, and paragraph (c)(3) of Rule 11Aa3-2 is now paragraph 
(b)(3) of Rule 608.
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    OPRA and OCC have now agreed that OCC will cease to act as the ISCA 
effective October 1, 2010. OPRA has selected SIAC to act as ISCA 
commencing on October 1, 2010, and SIAC has agreed to act in that 
capacity commencing on that date. SIAC is well known to OPRA since it 
has for many years acted as OPRA's ``Processor'' and has, in that 
capacity, provided the data processing services needed to develop, 
operate and maintain the OPRA System.
    As part of the revision of the OPRA Plan in 2003, OPRA adopted 
``Capacity Guidelines'' set forth in an Attachment to, and incorporated 
in, the Plan. The Capacity Guidelines provide guidance to the ISCA in 
the performance of its functions. The Capacity Guidelines include a 
requirement that the ISCA maintain internal safeguards and procedures 
that are, among other things, ``sufficient to assure that confidential 
information provided to the ISCA by the parties [i.e., the Exchanges] 
is not shared with any of the other parties except in the form of 
aggregate capacity requests or other aggregate information that does 
not identify the individual capacity requests of any of the parties, 
and to further assure that such information will not be used by the 
ISCA in any of its other business activities in a manner that may 
result in its being made available to any of the other parties or that 
is otherwise inconsistent with the confidentiality of such 
information.'' \7\ The Capacity Guidelines require that ``Prior to the 
time it first exercises its authority under the Plan, the ISCA shall 
have furnished a written description of these internal safeguards and 
procedures to the Commission.'' \8\ OPRA has worked with SIAC to 
develop appropriate internal safeguards and procedures that are 
substantially similar to the safeguards and procedures maintained by 
OCC, and has asked SIAC to furnish a written description of its 
safeguards and procedures to the Commission prior to October 1, 2010.
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    \7\ See the final paragraph of Guideline 1 in the Capacity 
Guidelines.
    \8\ See the final paragraph of Guideline 1 in the Capacity 
Guidelines.
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    The text of the proposed amendment to the OPRA Plan is available at 
OPRA, the Commission's Public Reference Room, http://opradata.com, and 
on the Commission's Web site at http://www.sec.gov.

II. Implementation of the OPRA Plan Amendment

    Pursuant to subparagraphs to (ii) and (iii) of paragraph (b)(3) of 
Rule 608 under the Act,\9\ OPRA designated this amendment to be put 
into effect upon filing with the Commission.
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    \9\ 17 CFR 242.608(b)(3)(ii).
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    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 608(b)(2) under the Act \10\ if it 
appears to the Commission that such action is necessary or appropriate 
in the public interest, for the protection of investors, or 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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    \10\ 17 CFR 242.608(b)(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. 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 No. SR-OPRA-2010-01 on the subject line.

Paper Comments

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

All submissions should refer to File Number SR-OPRA-2010-01. 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 Web site 
viewing and printing in the Commission's Public Reference Room, 100 F 
Street, NE., Washington, DC 20549, on official business days between 
the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. 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-2010-01 
and should be submitted on or before November 10, 2010.

    For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, 
pursuant to delegated authority.\11\
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    \11\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(29).
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Florence E. Harmon,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2010-26340 Filed 10-19-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011-01-P