60 Day Notice

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Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 147 / Tuesday, August 2, 2022 / Notices

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION
[SEC File No. 270–026, OMB Control No.
3235–0033]

khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES

Proposed Collection; Comment
Request; Extension: Rule 17a–3
Upon Written Request, Copies Available
From: Securities and Exchange
Commission, Office of FOIA Services,
100 F Street NE, Washington, DC
20549–2736
Notice is hereby given that pursuant
to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
(‘‘PRA’’) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) the
Securities and Exchange Commission
(‘‘Commission’’) is soliciting comments
on the existing collection of information
provided for in Rule 17a–3 (17 CFR
240.17a–3), under the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78a et
seq.). The Commission plans to submit
this existing collection of information to
the Office of Management and Budget
(‘‘OMB’’) for extension and approval.
Rule 17a–3 under the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934 establishes
minimum standards with respect to
business records that broker-dealers
registered with the Commission must
make and keep current. These records
are maintained by the broker-dealer (in
accordance with a separate rule), so they
can be used by the broker-dealer and
reviewed by Commission examiners, as
well as other regulatory authority
examiners, during inspections of the
broker-dealer.
The collections of information
included in Rule 17a–3 are necessary to
enable Commission, self-regulatory
organization (‘‘SRO’’), and state
examiners to conduct effective and
efficient examinations to determine
whether broker-dealers are complying
with relevant laws, rules, and
regulations. If broker-dealers were not
required to create these baseline,
standardized records, Commission,
SRO, and state examiners could be
unable to determine whether brokerdealers are in compliance with the
Commission’s antifraud and antimanipulation rules, financial
responsibility program, and other
Commission, SRO, and State laws, rules,
and regulations.
As of December 31, 2021 there were
3,528 broker-dealers registered with the
Commission. The Commission estimates
that these broker-dealer respondents
incur a total hour burden of
approximately 8,342,195 hours per year
to comply with Rule 17a–3.
In addition, Rule 17a–3 contains
ongoing operation and maintenance
costs for broker-dealers, including the

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cost of postage to provide customers
with account information, and costs for
equipment and systems development.
The Commission estimates that the total
cost burden associated with Rule 17a–
3 would be approximately $105,320,999
per year.
Written comments are invited on: (a)
whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of the
Commission, including whether the
information shall have practical utility;
(b) the accuracy of the Commission’s
estimate of the burden of the proposed
collection of information; (c) ways to
enhance the quality, utility, and clarity
of the information to be collected; and
(d) ways to minimize the burden of the
collection of information on
respondents, including through the use
of automated collection techniques or
other forms of information technology.
Consideration will be given to
comments and suggestions submitted by
October 3, 2022.
An agency may not conduct or
sponsor, and a person is not required to
respond to, a collection of information
under the PRA unless it displays a
currently valid OMB control number.
Please direct your written comments
to: David Bottom, Director/Chief
Information Officer, Securities and
Exchange Commission, c/o John
Pezzullo, 100 F Street NE, Washington,
DC 20549, or send an email to: PRA_
Mailbox@sec.gov.
Dated: July 27, 2022.
J. Matthew DeLesDernier,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2022–16479 Filed 8–1–22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011–01–P

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION
[SEC File No. 270–537, OMB Control No.
3235–0597]

Submission for OMB Review;
Comment Request: Extension: Rule 31
and Form R31
Upon Written Request, Copies Available
From: Securities and Exchange
Commission, Office of FOIA Services,
100 F Street NE, Washington, DC
20549–2736
Notice is hereby given that, pursuant
to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
(‘‘PRA’’) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), the
Securities and Exchange Commission
(‘‘Commission’’) has submitted to the
Office of Management and Budget
(‘‘OMB’’) a request for extension of the
previously approved collection of
information provided for in Rule 31 (17

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CFR 240.31) and Form R31 (17 CFR
249.11) under the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78ee) (‘‘Exchange
Act’’).
Section 31 of the Exchange Act
requires the Commission to collect fees
and assessments from national
securities exchanges and national
securities associations (collectively,
‘‘self-regulatory organizations’’ or
‘‘SROs’’) based on the volume of their
securities transactions. To collect the
proper amounts, the Commission
adopted Rule 31 and Form R31 under
the Exchange Act whereby each SRO
must report to the Commission the
volume of its securities transactions and
the Commission, based on those data,
calculates the amount of fees and
assessments that each SRO owes
pursuant to Section 31. Rule 31 and
Form R31 require each SRO to provide
these data on a monthly basis.
Currently, there are 27 respondents
under Rule 31 that are subject to the
collection of information requirements
of Rule 31: 24 national securities
exchanges, one national securities
association, and two registered clearing
agencies that are required to provide
certain data in their possession needed
by the SROs to complete Form R31,
although these two clearing agencies are
not themselves required to complete
and submit Form R31.1 The
Commission estimates that the total
burden for all 27 respondents is 432
hours per year. The Commission
estimates that, based on previous and
current experience, three additional
national securities exchanges will
become registered and subject to the
reporting requirements of Rule 31 over
the course of the authorization period
and collectively incur a burden of 18
hours per year. Thus, the Commission
estimates the collective burden for all
respondents (existing and new added
together) to be 450 hours per year. The
SEC does not believe that the 27 existing
or 3 expected new respondents will
have to incur any capital or start-up
costs, or any additional operational or
maintenance costs (other than as already
discussed in this paragraph), to comply
with the collection of information
requirements imposed by Rule 31 and
Form R31. The SEC estimates that the
average annual cost to the SEC of
processing all of these filings would be
$20,307.48 (90.1 hours at an average of
$225.39 per hour).
1 Since the last renewal period, when there was
one security futures exchange that reported
transactions, that exchanged has ceased operation.
Therefore, currently, no security futures exchanges
report any transaction in security futures on Form
R31.

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