[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 31 (Wednesday, February 15, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8817-8818]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-2068]


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COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection, 
Comment Request

AGENCY: Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``CFTC'' or 
``Commission'') seeks public comment on the collection of certain 
information by the Commission under section 745 of the Wall Street 
Reform and Consumer Protection Act (``Dodd-Frank Act''). The Paperwork 
Reduction Act (``PRA'') requires federal agencies to publish a notice 
in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of 
information and to allow 60 days for public comment. Section 745 
requires the Commission to seek public comment for not less than 30 
days with respect to certain industry filings. This notice solicits 
comments on the provisions of the Commission's final rulemaking on 
``Provisions Common to Registered Entities'' under which the Commission 
would collect comments on the industry filings by publication of 
documents related to the filings and a request for comments on the 
Commission's public Web site.\1\
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    \1\ 76 FR 44776, July 27, 2011.

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DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before April 2, 2012.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by ``Part 40 Notice and 
Comment Collection,'' by any of the following methods:
     Agency Web site, via its Comments Online process: http://comments.cftc.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments 
through the Web site.
     Mail: Send to David A. Stawick, Secretary, Commodity 
Futures Trading Commission, 1155 21st Street NW., Washington, DC 20581.
     Hand delivery/Courier: Same as Mail above.
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov/search/index.jsp. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
    All comments must be submitted in English, or if not, accompanied 
by an English translation. Comments will be posted as received to 
http://www.cftc.gov. You should submit only information that you wish 
to make available publicly. If you wish the Commission to consider 
information that is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of 
Information Act, a petition for confidential treatment of the exempt 
information may be submitted according to the procedures set forth in 
Sec.  145.9 of the Commission's regulations.\2\
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    \2\ Commission regulations referred to herein are found at 17 
CFR Ch. 1 (2010). Commission regulations are accessible on the 
Commission's Web site, www.cftc.gov.
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    The Commission reserves the right, but shall have no obligation, to 
review, pre-screen, filter, redact, refuse or remove any or all of your 
submission from www.cftc.gov that it may deem to be inappropriate for 
publication, such as obscene language. All submissions that have been 
redacted or removed that contain comments on the merits of the 
rulemaking will be retained in the public comment file and will be 
considered as required under the Administrative Procedure Act and other 
applicable laws, and may be accessible under the Freedom of Information 
Act.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION OR A COPY CONTACT: Bella Rozenberg, Assistant 
Deputy Director, Division of Market Oversight, Commodity Futures 
Trading Commission, (202) 418-5119 [email protected] or Mathew T. 
Hargrow, Attorney, Office of the General Counsel, (202) 418-5267, 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the PRA, federal agencies must obtain 
approval from the Office of Management and Budget (``OMB'') for each 
collection of information they collect or sponsor. ``Collection of 
information'' is defined in 44 U.S.C. 3502(3) as ``the obtaining, 
causing to be obtained, soliciting * * * facts or opinions by or for 
any agency, regardless of form or format [from] ten or more persons.'' 
An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to 
respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB 
control number. Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, 44 U.S.C. 
3506(c)(2)(A), requires federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice in 
the Federal Register for each proposed collection of information before 
submitting the collection to OMB for approval. Under OMB regulations, 
which implement provisions of the PRA, certain ``facts or opinions that 
are submitted in response to a general solicitation of comments from 
the public, published in the Federal Register or other publications,'' 
5 CFR 1320.3(h)(4), or ``facts or opinions obtained or solicited at or 
in connection with public hearings or meetings,'' 5 CFR 1320.3(h)(8), 
are excluded from the OMB approval process.
    In the Commission's final rulemaking on provisions common to 
registered entities,\3\ the Commission seeks to implement section 745 
of the Dodd-Frank Act,\4\ which amends Section 5c the Commodity 
Exchange Act (CEA) \5\ to enhance compliance by registered entities. 
This section permits a registered entity to elect to list for trading 
or accept for clearing any new contract or other instrument, or elect 
to approve and implement any new rule or rule amendment by providing to 
the Commission a written certification that the new contract, 
instrument, rule, or rule amendment complies with the CEA. Such rules 
or rule amendments become effective after ten (10) business days, 
unless the Commission notifies the registered entity that it is staying 
the certification because there exist novel or complex issues that 
require additional time to analyze, an inadequate explanation by the 
submitting registered entity, or a potential inconsistency with the 
CEA. Pursuant to section 745 and the final amendments to part 40 of the 
Commission's regulations,\6\ the Commission will provide a not less 
than a 30-day comment period when it determines that the rule or rule 
amendment will be stayed. Pursuant to the final rules, the Commission 
will provide notice of the stay and the request for comment on its Web 
site, as well as specify the manner in which the public may submit 
comments.\7\
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    \3\ 75 FR 67282, Nov. 2, 2010.
    \4\ Public Law 111-203, 124 Stat. 1376 (2010).
    \5\ 7 U.S.C. 7a.
    \6\ 75 FR 67282, 67296 (Nov. 2, 2010).
    \7\ Id.
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    The Commission initially estimated that approximately 45 entities 
would be affected by the rule certification procedures.\8\ The initial 
estimate determined that these 45 entities would each have 
approximately 120 responses per year for a total of 5,400 responses.\9\ 
The Commission has amended these numbers in the final rule such that 
the estimated number of respondents is increased to 70 entities, the 
average annual responses by each respondent is decreased to 100. These 
numbers are based upon comments received regarding the proposed rules 
as well as changes made by the Commission to streamline the product 
certification process for certain swap contracts. The Commission 
anticipates that the

[[Page 8818]]

mandatory responses to the new collection will take approximate 2 hours 
per response.
    The Commission cannot determine with precision how many of the 
7,000 responses it expects to receive will be stayed and subject to the 
notice and comment requirements of section 745 and the part 40 
regulations. The Commission anticipates that only a small fraction of 
these responses would be stayed and subject to a request for comment 
via Web site notice, and that each of the stayed rules or rule 
amendments typically will receive not more than 20 comments, a 
conservative number based on Commission history with industry filings.
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    \8\ Id. at 67290.
    \9\ Id.

    Issued by the Commission this 24th day of January, 2012.
David Stawick,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 2012-2068 Filed 2-14-12; 8:45 am]
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