[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 166 (Tuesday, August 29, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41075-41077]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-18243]


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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-81470; File No. SR-NYSEAMER-2017-05]


Self-Regulatory Organizations; NYSE American LLC; Notice of 
Filing of Proposed Rule Change To Amend the Complimentary Products and 
Services Available to Certain Eligible New Listings Pursuant to Section 
146 of the NYSE American Company Guide

August 23, 2017.
    Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) \1\ of the Securities Exchange Act of 
1934 (the ``Act''),\2\ and Rule 19b-4 thereunder,\3\ notice is hereby 
given that, on August 11, 2017, NYSE American LLC (the ``Exchange'' or 
``NYSE American'') filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission 
(the ``Commission'') the

[[Page 41076]]

proposed rule change as described in Items I, II, and III below, which 
Items have been prepared by the self-regulatory organization. The 
Commission is publishing this notice to solicit comments on the 
proposed rule change from interested persons.
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    \1\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(1).
    \2\ 15 U.S.C. 78a.
    \3\ 17 CFR 240.19b-4.
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I. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Terms of Substance 
of the Proposed Rule Change

    The Exchange proposes to amend Section 146 of the NYSE American 
Company Guide (the ``Company Guide'') to provide that companies 
initially listed on or after October 1, 2017 will not be eligible to 
receive corporate governance tools under the Exchange's services 
offering. The proposed rule change is available on the Exchange's Web 
site at www.nyse.com, at the principal office of the Exchange, and at 
the Commission's Public Reference Room.

II. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Purpose of, and 
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change

    In its filing with the Commission, the self-regulatory organization 
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 those statements may be examined at 
the places specified in Item IV below. The Exchange has prepared 
summaries, set forth in sections A, B, and C below, of the most 
significant parts of such statements.

A. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Purpose of, and the 
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change

1. Purpose
    The Exchange proposes to amend Section 146 of the Company Guide to 
provide that companies initially listed on or after October 1, 2017 
will not be eligible to receive corporate governance tools under the 
Exchange's services offering.
    As set forth in Section 146, the Exchange currently provides 
Eligible New Listings \4\ with complimentary Web-hosting products and 
services (with a commercial value of approximately $16,000 annually), 
web-casting services (with a commercial value of approximately $6,500 
annually), whistleblower hotline services (with a commercial value of 
approximately $4,000 annually), and news distribution products and 
services (with a commercial value of approximately $20,000 annually) 
and corporate governance tools (with a commercial value of 
approximately $15,000 annually) for a period of 24 calendar months. The 
Exchange's experience has been that companies that qualify as Eligible 
New Listings have generally not been interested in availing themselves 
of the corporate governance tools available as part of the services 
offering. As such the Exchange has decided to discontinue the corporate 
governance tool portion of its service offering for companies that list 
on or after October 1, 2017. Any company that is listed prior to 
October 1, 2017 will continue to be able to access corporate governance 
tools to the extent that they are eligible to do so under Section 146 
as currently in effect.
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    \4\ For the purposes of Section 146, the term ``Eligible New 
Listing'' means (i) any U.S. company that lists common stock on the 
Exchange for the first time and any non-U.S. company that lists an 
equity security on the Exchange under Section 101 or 110 of the 
Company Guide for the first time, regardless of whether such U.S. or 
non-U.S. company conducts an offering, (ii) any U.S. or non-U.S. 
company that transfers its listing of common stock or equity 
securities, respectively, to the Exchange from another national 
securities exchange and (iii) any U.S. or non-U.S. company emerging 
from a bankruptcy, spinoff (where a company lists new shares in the 
absence of a public offering), and carve-out (where a company carves 
out a business line or division, which then conducts a separate 
initial public offering).
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2. Statutory Basis
    The Exchange believes that the proposed rule change is consistent 
with Section 6(b) \5\ of the Act, in general, and furthers the 
objectives of Section 6(b)(5) of the Act,\6\ in particular in that it 
is designed to promote just and equitable principles of trade, to 
foster cooperation and coordination with persons engaged in regulating, 
clearing, settling, processing information with respect to, and 
facilitating transactions in securities, to remove impediments to and 
perfect the mechanism of a free and open market and a national market 
system, and, in general, to protect investors and the public interest 
and is not designed to permit unfair discrimination between customers, 
issuers, brokers, or dealers. The Exchange believes that the proposed 
amendment is not unfairly discriminatory, as all companies listed on or 
after October 1, 2017 will continue to be eligible to avail themselves 
of the same services offering with the exception of the corporate 
governance tools offering which will be discontinued. It is not 
unfairly discriminatory to continue to offer corporate governance tools 
to companies listed prior to October 1, 2017, as that benefit was part 
of the services offering that was available at the time of those 
companies' initial listing and may have had some influence over their 
listing decisions.
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    \5\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b).
    \6\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(5).
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B. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement on Burden on Competition

    The Exchange believes that the proposed amendments to the Company 
Guide do not impose any burden on competition that is not necessary or 
appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the Act. The proposed 
rule change does not impose any burden on competition, as all companies 
whose initial listing occurs on or after October 1, 2017 will be 
eligible for an identical services offering with the exception of the 
discontinued corporate governance tools.

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

    No written comments were solicited or received with respect to the 
proposed rule change.

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

    Within 45 days of the date of publication of this notice in the 
Federal Register or up to 90 days (i) as the Commission may designate 
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 or disapprove the 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 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 Number SR-NYSEAMER-2017-05 on the subject line.

Paper Comments

     Send paper comments in triplicate to Secretary, Securities 
and Exchange

[[Page 41077]]

Commission, 100 F Street NE., Washington, DC 20549-1090.

All submissions should refer to File Number SR-NYSEAMER-2017-05. 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 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 Web site viewing and 
printing in the Commission's Public Reference Room, 100 F Street N., 
Washington, DC 20549, on official business days between the hours of 
10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Copies of the filing also will be available 
for inspection and copying at the principal office of the Exchange. 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-NYSEAMER-2017-05, and should 
be submitted on or before September 19, 2017.
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    \7\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(12).

    For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, 
pursuant to delegated authority.\7\
Eduardo A. Aleman,
Assistant Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2017-18243 Filed 8-28-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 8011-01-P