Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 15 / Tuesday, January 26, 2021 / Notices 7145 

1The Commission estimates that each registrant 

prepares and approves a rule 18f–3 plan every two 

years when issuing a new fund or new class or 

amending a plan (or that 522.5 of all 1,045 

registrants prepare and approve a plan each year). 

2 0.5 responses per registrant × 6 hours per 

response = 3 hours per registrant. 

3 3 hours per registrant per year × 1,045 

registrants = 3,135 hours per year. 

the fund satisfies the conditions of the 

rule. In general, each class must differ 

in its arrangement for shareholder 

services or distribution or both, and 

must pay the related expenses of that 

different arrangement. The rule includes 

one requirement for the collection of 

information. A multiple class fund must 

prepare, and fund directors must 

approve, a written plan setting forth the 

separate arrangement and expense 

allocation of each class, and any related 

conversion features or exchange 

privileges (‘‘rule 18f–3 plan’’). Approval 

of the plan must occur before the fund 

issues any shares of multiple classes 

and whenever the fund materially 

amends the plan. In approving the plan, 

the fund board, including a majority of 

the independent directors, must 

determine that the plan is in the best 

interests of each class and the fund as 

a whole. 

The requirement that the fund prepare 

and directors approve a written rule 

18f–3 plan is intended to ensure that the 

fund compiles information relevant to 

the fairness of the separate arrangement 

and expense allocation for each class, 

and that directors review and approve 

the information. Without a blueprint 

that highlights material differences 

among classes, directors might not 

perceive potential conflicts of interests 

when they determine whether the plan 

is in the best interests of each class and 

the fund. In addition, the plan may be 

useful to Commission staff in reviewing 

the fund’s compliance with the rule. 

Based on an analysis of fund filings, 

the Commission estimates that there are 

approximately 7,293 multiple class 

funds offered by 990 registrants. The 

Commission estimates that each of the 

990 registrants will make an average of 

0.5 responses annually to prepare and 

approve a written 18f–3 plan.1 The 

Commission estimates each response 

will take 6 hours, requiring a total of 3 

hours per registrant per year.2 Thus the 

total annual hour burden associated 

with these requirements of the rule is 

approximately 2,970 hours.3

Estimates of the average burden hours 

are made solely for the purposes of the 

Paperwork Reduction Act and are not 

derived from a comprehensive or even 

a representative survey or study of the 

costs of Commission rules and forms. 

The collection of information under rule 

18f–3 is mandatory. The information 

provided under rule 18f–3 will not be 

kept confidential. An agency may not 

conduct or sponsor, and a person is not 

required to respond to, a collection of 

information unless it displays a 

currently valid OMB control number. 

The public may view the background 

documentation for this information 

collection at the following website, 

www.reginfo.gov. Comments should be 

directed to: (i) Desk Officer for the 

Securities and Exchange Commission, 

Office of Information and Regulatory 

Affairs, Office of Management and 

Budget, Room 10102, New Executive 

Office Building, Washington, DC 20503, 

or by sending an email to: 

Lindsay.M.Abate@omb.eop.gov; and (ii) 

David Bottom, Director/Chief 

Information Officer, Securities and 

Exchange Commission, c/o Cynthia 

Roscoe, 100 F Street NE, Washington, 

DC 20549 or send an email to: PRA_

Mailbox@sec.gov. Written comments 

and recommendations for the proposed 

information collection should be sent 

within 30 days of publication of this 

notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/ 

PRAMain. Find this particular 

information collection by selecting 

‘‘Currently under 30-day Review—Open 

for Public Comments’’ or by using the 

search function. 

J. Matthew DeLesDernier, 

Assistant Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2021–01662 Filed 1–25–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 8011–01–P 

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE 

COMMISSION 

[SEC File No. 270–399, OMB Control No. 

3235–0456] 

Submission for OMB Review; 

Comment Request 

Upon Written Request, Copies Available 

From: Securities and Exchange 

Commission, Office of FOIA Services, 

100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 

20549–2736 

Extension: 

Form 24F–2 

Notice is hereby given that pursuant 

to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

(44 U.S.C. 3501–3520), the Securities 

and Exchange Commission (the 

‘‘Commission’’) has submitted to the 

Office of Management and Budget a 

request for extension of the previously 

approved collection of information 

discussed below. 

Rule 24f–2 (17 CFR 270.24f–2) under 

the Investment Company Act of 1940 

(15 U.S.C. 80a) requires any open-end 

management companies (‘‘mutual 

funds’’), unit investment trusts 

(‘‘UITs’’), registered closed-end 

investment companies that make 

periodic repurchase offers under rule 

23c–3 under the Investment Company 

Act [17 CFR 270.23c–3] (‘‘interval 

funds’’), or face-amount certificate 

companies (collectively, ‘‘funds’’) 

deemed to have registered an indefinite 

amount of securities to file, not later 

than 90 days after the end of any fiscal 

year in which it has publicly offered 

such securities, Form 24F–2 (17 CFR 

274.24) with the Commission. Form 

24F–2 is the annual notice of securities 

sold by funds that accompanies the 

payment of registration fees with respect 

to the securities sold during the fiscal 

year. 

The Commission estimates that 6,794 

funds file Form 24F–2 on the required 

annual basis. The average annual 

burden per respondent for Form 24F–2 

is estimated to be four hours. The total 

annual burden for all respondents to 

Form 24F–2 is estimated to be 27,176 

hours. The estimate of average burden 

hours is made solely for the purposes of 

the Paperwork Reduction Act, and is not 

derived from a comprehensive or even 

a representative survey or study of the 

costs of Commission rules. 

Compliance with the collection of 

information required by Form 24F–2 is 

mandatory. The Form 24F–2 filing that 

must be made to the Commission is 

available to the public. An agency may 

not conduct or sponsor, and a person is 

not required to respond to, a collection 

of information unless it displays a 

currently valid control number. 

The public may view the background 

documentation for this information 

collection at the following website, 

www.reginfo.gov. Comments should be 

directed to: (i) Desk Officer for the 

Securities and Exchange Commission, 

Office of Information and Regulatory 

Affairs, Office of Management and 

Budget, Room 10102, New Executive 

Office Building, Washington, DC 20503, 

or by sending an email to: 

Lindsay.M.Abate@omb.eop.gov; and (ii) 

David Bottom, Director/Chief 

Information Officer, Securities and 

Exchange Commission, c/o Cynthia 

Roscoe, 100 F Street NE, Washington, 

DC 20549 or send an email to: PRA_

Mailbox@sec.gov. Written comments 

and recommendations for the proposed 

information collection should be sent 

within 30 days of publication of this 

notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/ 

PRAMain. Find this particular 

information collection by selecting 

‘‘Currently under 30-day Review—Open 

for Public Comments’’ or by using the 

search function. 

7146 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 15 / Tuesday, January 26, 2021 / Notices 

1 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(1). 

2 17 CFR 240.19b–4. 

3The Exchange initially filed the proposed fee 

changes January 4, 2021 (SR–CboeBYX–2021–002). 

On January 13, 2021, the Exchange withdrew that 

filing and submitted this proposal. 

4See Cboe Global Markets, U.S. Equities Market 

Volume Summary, Month-to-Date (December 18, 

2020), available at https://markets.cboe.com/us/ 

equities/market_statistics/. 

5A Sponsored Participant is a person which has 

entered into a sponsorship arrangement with a 

Sponsoring Member pursuant to Rule 11.3, which 

permits a Sponsored Participant to obtain 

authorized access to the System only if such access 

is authorized in advance by one or more Sponsoring 

Members. See Rules 1.5(x) and 11.3. 

6A Sponsoring Member is a Member that is a 

registered broker-dealer and that has been 

designated by a Sponsored Participant to execute, 

clear and settle transactions resulting from the 

System. The Sponsoring Member shall be either (i) 

a clearing firm with membership in a clearing 

agency registered with the Commission that 

maintains facilities through which transactions may 

be cleared or (ii) a correspondent firm with a 

clearing arrangement with any such clearing firm. 

See Rule 1.5(y) 

Dated: January 21, 2021. 

J. Matthew DeLesDernier, 

Assistant Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2021–01664 Filed 1–25–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 8011–01–P 

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE 

COMMISSION 

[Release No. 34–90943; File No. SR– 

CboeBYX–2021–004] 

Self-Regulatory Organizations; Cboe 

BYX Exchange, Inc.; Notice of Filing 

and Immediate Effectiveness of 

Proposed Rule Change To Establish a 

Monthly Fee Assessed on Members’ 

MPIDs 

January 19, 2021. 

Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the 

Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the 

‘‘Act’’) 1 and Rule 19b–4 thereunder,2

notice is hereby given that, on January 

13, 2021, Cboe BYX Exchange, Inc. (the 

‘‘Exchange’’ or ‘‘BYX’’) filed with the 

Securities and Exchange Commission 

(the ‘‘Commission’’) the proposed rule 

change as described in Items I and II 

below, which Items have been prepared 

by the Exchange. The Commission is 

publishing this notice to solicit 

comments on the proposed rule change 

from interested persons. 

I. Self-Regulatory Organization’s 

Statement of the Terms of Substance of 

the Proposed Rule Change 

Cboe BYX Exchange, Inc. (the 

‘‘Exchange’’ or ‘‘BYX Equities’’) 

proposes to amend its fee schedule to 

establish a fee in connection with a 

Member’s Market Participant 

Identifier(s) (‘‘MPID’’). The text of the 

proposed rule change is provided in 

Exhibit 5. 

The text of the proposed rule change 

is also available on the Exchange’s 

website (http://markets.cboe.com/us/ 

equities/regulation/rule_filings/byx/), at 

the Exchange’s Office of the Secretary, 

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 

Exchange 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 these 

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 aspects of such 

statements. 

A. Self-Regulatory Organization’s 

Statement of the Purpose of, and 

Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule 

Change 

1. Purpose 

The Exchange proposes to amend its 

Fee Schedule to adopt a monthly fee 

assessed on Members’ MPIDs.3

The Exchange first notes that it 

operates in a highly competitive market 

in which market participants can 

readily direct order flow to competing 

venues if they deem fee levels at a 

particular venue to be excessive or 

incentives to be insufficient. More 

specifically, the Exchange is only one of 

16 registered equities exchanges, as well 

as a number of alternative trading 

systems and other off-exchange venues 

that do not have similar self-regulatory 

responsibilities under the Exchange Act, 

to which market participants may direct 

their order flow. Based on publicly 

available information,4 no single 

registered equities exchange has more 

than 16% of consolidated equity market 

share and currently the Exchange 

represents approximately 1.5% of the 

U.S. equities market. Thus, in such a 

low-concentrated and highly 

competitive market, no single equities 

exchange possesses significant pricing 

power in the execution of order flow. 

The Exchange further notes that brokerdealers are not compelled to be 

Members of the Exchange, and a 

significant proportion of broker-dealers 

that trade U.S. equity securities have, in 

fact, chosen not to apply for 

membership on the Exchange. 

By way of background, an MPID is a 

four-character unique identifier that is 

approved by the Exchange and assigned 

to a Member for use on the Exchange to 

identify the Member firm on the orders 

sent to the Exchange and resulting 

executions. Members may choose to 

request more than one MPID as a unique 

identifier(s) for their transactions on the 

Exchange. The Exchange notes that a 

Member may have multiple MPIDs for 

use by separate business units and 

trading desks or to support Sponsored 

Participant 5 access. Certain members 

currently leverage multiple MPIDs to 

obtain benefits from and added value in 

their participation on the Exchange. 

Multiple MPIDs provide unique benefits 

to and efficiencies for Members by 

allowing: (1) Members to manage their 

trading activity more efficiently by 

assigning different MPIDs to different 

trading desks and/or strategies within 

the firm; and (2) Sponsoring Members 6

to segregate Sponsored Participants by 

MPID to allow for detailed client-level 

reporting, billing, and administration, 

and to market the ability to use separate 

MPIDs to Sponsored Participants, 

which, in turn, may serve as a potential 

incentive for increased order flow 

traded through the Sponsoring Member. 

The Exchange proposes to adopt a fee 

applicable to Members that use multiple 

MPIDs to facilitate their trading on the 

Exchange. Specifically, as proposed, the 

Exchange would assess a monthly MPID 

Fee of $150 per MPID per Member, with 

a Member’s first MPID provided free of 

charge. The Exchange believes the 

proposed assessment of an MPID Fee 

aligns with the additional value and 

benefits provided to Members that 

choose to utilize more than one MPID to 

facilitate their trading on the Exchange. 

The Exchange also believes that 

assessing a fee on additional MPIDs will 

be beneficial because such fee will 

promote efficiency in MPID use. 

The MPID Fee will be assessed on a 

pro-rated basis for new MPIDs by 

charging a Member based on the trading 

day in the month during which an 

additional MPID becomes effective for 

use. If a Member cancels an additional 

MPID on or after the first business day 

of the month, the Member will be 

required to pay the entire MPID Fee for 

that month. The Exchange believes that 

this practice is appropriate to balance 

the administrative costs associated with 

disabling MPIDs. 

2. Statutory Basis 

The Exchange believes the proposed 

rule change is consistent with the 

Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the 

‘‘Act’’) and the rules and regulations 

thereunder applicable to the Exchange