[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 159 (Monday, August 18, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48779-48780]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-19476]


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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-72820; File No. SR-OPRA-2013-03]


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 Amend Sections 5.4 and 7.1 of the 
OPRA Plan

August 12, 2014.
    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, 2013, the Options Price Reporting Authority, LLC 
(``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 amendment would modify Sections 5.4 and 7.1 of the OPRA 
Plan as they pertain to operations of OPRA outside of its regular hours 
of operations. 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 twelve participants to 
the OPRA Plan are BATS Exchange, Inc., BOX Options Exchange, LLC, 
Chicago Board Options Exchange, Incorporated, C2 Options Exchange, 
Incorporated, International Securities Exchange, LLC, Miami 
International Securities Exchange, LLC, NASDAQ OMX BX, Inc., NASDAQ 
OMX PHLX LLC, NASDAQ Stock Market LLC, NYSE MKT LLC, NYSE Arca, 
Inc., and the Topaz Exchange, LLC (d/b/a ISE Gemini).
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I. Description and Purpose of the Plan Amendment

    The purpose of the proposed amendment is to amend the OPRA Plan so 
that it provides for the aggregation of costs for operations of OPRA 
outside of its regular hours of operations (``after-hours operations'') 
with costs for operations of OPRA during its regular hours of 
operations (``regular-hours operations'') and states expressly that 
OPRA may establish separate fees for access to OPRA data during periods 
of after-hours operations.
    One of OPRA's member exchanges has indicated that it is planning to 
initiate after-hours trading and to request OPRA to operate during the 
after-hours period when its market is open for trading.\4\ No exchange 
has previously made such a request, and as a result OPRA currently does 
not operate outside of its regular hours of operations.
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    \4\ The OPRA Plan provides that the OPRA System will operate 
outside of its regular hours of operation at the request of any one 
or more of its member exchanges. See Section 5.3 of the OPRA Plan 
(available on the OPRA Web site, www.opradata.com, under the ``OPRA 
Plan'' tab). OPRA is not proposing to amend Section 5.3 of the OPRA 
Plan.
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    Currently, the OPRA Plan provides that the costs of OPRA's after-
hour operations are to be allocated separately from the costs of OPRA's 
regular-hour operations and in a somewhat different manner. In essence, 
the Plan currently provides that the costs of OPRA's regular-hour 
operations below a specified ceiling \5\ and OPRA's revenues from 
regular-hour operations are both to be allocated among the OPRA member 
exchanges on the basis of the relative number of compared trades in 
options contracts traded on each of the OPRA member exchanges.\6\
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    \5\ Clause 7.1(a)(iii)(2) of the Plan provides that costs above 
a ``specified ceiling'' are to be allocated in accordance with 
OPRA's Capacity Guidelines. (OPRA's Capacity Guidelines are 
available on the OPRA Web site, also under the ``OPRA Plan'' tab.) 
The ``ceiling'' is described in Guideline 7 of the Capacity 
Guidelines. OPRA is not proposing any change in the allocation of 
costs that is described in the Capacity Guidelines.
    \6\ Section 7.1 of the Plan provides for three ``accounting 
centers'': The foreign currency option or ``FCO'' accounting center, 
the index option accounting center and the ``basic'' accounting 
center--the accounting center for all options other than foreign 
currency and index options. Section 7.1 describes the allocation of 
revenues and expenses associated with OPRA's regular-hour operations 
first among these three accounting centers and then within each of 
these accounting centers. OPRA does not currently incur costs 
specifically attributable to either the FCO accounting center or the 
index option accounting center, and does not allocate revenues to 
either of these accounting centers. Both the allocation of costs 
among the accounting centers and the allocation of costs within each 
accounting center are therefore on the basis of the relative number 
of compared trades in options contracts traded on each of the OPRA 
member exchanges. See, e.g., Section 7.1(a)(iii)(B) of the Plan.
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    The current provisions of the Plan state that, if the OPRA System 
operates outside of OPRA's regular hours, any costs attributable to 
such operation will be allocated to the exchange or exchanges that are 
actually operating during the after-hours period. The Plan does not 
make any special provision for the allocation of revenues resulting 
from fees for access to OPRA data generated in the course of after-
hours operations, and the Plan therefore provides that

[[Page 48780]]

these revenues will be allocated among the OPRA member exchanges in the 
same way that revenues derived from regular-hours operations are 
allocated. The result is that the Plan currently provides for the 
allocation of costs of after-hours trading only to the exchange or 
exchanges that are actually operating during the after-hours period, 
but for the allocation of revenues resulting from fees for access to 
quotation and last sale information generated in the course of after-
hours operations to all of the OPRA member exchanges on the basis of 
the relative number of compared trades in options contracts traded on 
each of the OPRA member exchanges in trading during both regular hours 
and outside of regular hours.
    OPRA is therefore proposing to revise the Plan to provide that the 
costs of after-hours operations will be aggregated with the costs of 
operating the OPRA System during regular hours of operation. The 
consequence of the revision would be that the aggregated costs of 
operating the System during all hours of operation would be allocated 
among all of OPRA's member exchanges, regardless of whether any 
particular exchange operates its market outside of regular hours. OPRA 
believes that this amendment will better align the provisions of the 
Plan relating to the allocation of costs of after-hours operations with 
the provisions of the Plan relating to the allocation of revenues 
derived from after-hours trading.
    OPRA's Fee Schedule does not currently provide for fees 
specifically for access to OPRA data during periods of after-hours 
operations. OPRA believes that, in order to fairly allocate the burden 
of funding OPRA's after-hours operations to those persons who choose to 
have access to OPRA information during periods of after-hours 
operations, it will be appropriate to establish such fees rather than 
increase its current fees, and OPRA is proposing to add a sentence in 
Section 5.4(d) to state expressly that it may establish such fees.\7\ 
However, OPRA is not proposing in this filing to amend its Fee Schedule 
to establish fees for access to data generated in after-hours trading.
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    \7\ OPRA is also proposing in this filing to make a non-
substantive change to Section 5.4(d) to reflect that the OPRA Fee 
Schedule is no longer identified as ``Exhibit B'' to the OPRA Plan 
but is publicly available on the OPRA Web site under the ``Fees'' 
tab.
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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 www.sec.gov.

II. Implementation of the OPRA Plan Amendment

    OPRA will implement the proposed amendment to the OPRA Plan after 
this filing has been approved by the Commission in accordance with 
paragraph (b)(1) of Rule 608 of Regulation NMS under the Act.

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 email to [email protected]. Please include 
File No. SR-OPRA-2013-03 on the subject line.

Paper Comments

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

All submissions should refer to File Number SR-OPRA-2013-03. This file 
number should be included on the subject line if email 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 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 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-2013-03 
and should be submitted on or before September 8, 2014.

    By the Commission.
Kevin M. O'Neill,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2014-19476 Filed 8-15-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011-01-P