Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 20 / Thursday, January 30, 1997 / Notices 4553

1OPRA is a National Market System Plan

approved by the Commission pursuant to Section

11A of the Exchange Act and Rule 11Aa3–2

thereunder. Securities Exchange Act Release No.

17638 (Mar. 18, 1981).

The Plan provides for the collection and

dissemination of last sale and quotation information

on options that are traded on the five member

exchanges. The five exchanges which agreed to the

OPRA Plan are the American Stock Exchange

(‘‘AMEX’’); the Chicago Board Options Exchange

(‘‘CBOE’’); the New York Stock Exchange (‘‘NYSE’’);

the Pacific Stock Exchange (‘‘PSE’’); and the

Philadelphia Stock Exchange (‘‘PHLX’’).

6. The number of hours needed

annually to complete the requirement or

request: 46,200 (420 hours per reactor

licensee respondent); 10,000 (100 hours

per materials licensee respondent).

7. Abstract: NRC is requesting

approval authority to collect

information concerning non-routine,

emergency generic problems which

would require prompt action from NRC

to preclude potential threats to public

health and safety.

Submit, by March 31, 1997 comments

that address the following questions:

1. Is the proposed collection of

information necessary for the NRC to

properly perform its functions? Does the

information have practical utility?

2. Is the burden estimate accurate?

3. Is there a way to enhance the

quality, utility, and clarity of the

information to be collected?

4. How can the burden of the

information collection be minimized,

including the use of automated

collection techniques or other forms of

information technology?

A copy of the draft supporting

statement may be viewed free of charge

at the NRC Public Document Room,

2120 L Street NW, (lower level),

Washington, DC Members of the public

who are in the Washington, DC area can

access this document via modem on the

Public Document Room Bulletin Board

(NRC’s Advanced Copy Document

Library), NRC subsystem at FedWorld,

703–321–3339. Members of the public

who are located outside of the

Washington, DC area can dial Fed

World, 1–800–303–9672, or use the

FedWorld Internet address:

fedworld.gov (Telnet). The document

will be available on the bulletin board

for 30 days after the signature date of

this notice. If assistance is needed in

accessing the document, please contact

the Fed World help desk at 703–487–

4608. Additional assistance in locating

the document is available from the NRC

Public Document Room, nationally at 1–

800–397–4209, or within the

Washington, DC area at 202–634–3273.

Comments and questions about the

information collection requirements

may be directed to the NRC Clearance

Officer, Brenda Jo. Shelton, U.S. Nuclear

Regulatory Commission, T–6 F33,

Washington, DC 20555–0001, by

telephone at (310) 415–7233, or by

Internet electronic mail at

BJS1@NRC.GOV.

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 23rd day

of January, 1997.

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Gerald F. Cranford,

Designated Senior Official for Information

Resources Management.

[FR Doc. 97–2328 Filed 1–29–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 7590–01–M

[Docket Nos. 50–373 and 50–374]

Commonwealth Edison Company;

Notice of Withdrawal of Application for

Amendments to Facility Operating

Licenses

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

Commission (the Commission) has

granted the request of Commonwealth

Edison Company (ComEd, the licensee)

to withdraw its May 19, 1995,

application proposing to amend Facility

Operating License Nos. NPF–11 and

NPF–18 for the LaSalle County Station,

Units 1 and 2, located in LaSalle

County, Illinois.

The proposed amendment would

have revised the technical specifications

(TS) by extending the surveillance

interval for visual inspection of certain

fire protection valves from every 31

days to once per 18 months.

The Commission had previously

issued a Notice of Consideration of

Issuance of Amendment published in

the Federal Register on July 5, 1995 (60

FR 35067). However, by letter dated July

15, 1996, the licensee withdrew the

proposed change.

For further details with respect to this

action, see the application for

amendment dated May 19, 1995, and

the licensee’s letter dated July 15, 1996,

which withdrew the application for

license amendment. The above

documents are available for public

inspection at the Commission’s Public

Document Room, the Gelman Building,

2120 L Street, NW., Washington, DC,

and at the local public document room

located at the Jacobs Memorial Library,

Illinois Valley Community College,

Oglesby, Illinois 61348.

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 22nd

day of January 1997.

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Donna M. Skay,

Project Manager, Project Directorate—III–2,

Division of Reactor Projects—III/IV, Office of

Nuclear Reactor Regulation.

[FR Doc. 97–2327 Filed 1–29–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 7590–01–M

POSTAL RATE COMMISSION

Sunshine Act Meeting

NAME OF AGENCY: Postal Rate

Commission.

FEDERAL REGISTER CITATION OF PREVIOUS

ANNOUNCEMENT: FR Vol. 62, No. 7,

Friday, January 10, 1997.

PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED TIME AND DATE OF

THE MEETING: 10:00 a.m., February 3,

1997.

CHANGES IN THE MEETING:

Reconsideration of Order No. 1145 in

Docket No. C96–1 to be considered also.

CONTACT PERSON FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Margaret P. Crenshaw, Secretary, Postal

Rate Commission, Suite 300, 1333 H

Street, NW, Washington, DC 20268–

0001, Telephone (202) 789–6840.

Margaret P. Crenshaw,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 97–2367 Filed 1–27–97; 4:38 pm]

BILLING CODE 7710–FW–P

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE

COMMISSION

[Release No. 34–38204; File No. SR–OPRA–

97–1]

Options Price Reporting Authority;

Notice of Filing and Immediate

Effectiveness of Amendment to OPRA

Fee Schedule Revising the DeviceBased Information Fees Payable by

Professional Subscribers to OPRA’s

Basic Service and Implementing a New

Enterprise Rate Professional

Subscriber Fee as an Alternative to the

Device-Based Fee

January 24, 1997.

Pursuant to Rule 11Aa3–2 under the

Securities Exchange Act of 1934

(‘‘Exchange Act’’), notice is hereby given

that on January 8, 1997, the Options

Price Reporting Authority (‘‘OPRA’’) 1

submitted to the Securities and

Exchange Commission (‘‘SEC’’ or

‘‘Commission’’) an amendment to the

Plan for Reporting of Consolidated

Options Last Sale Reports and

Quotation Information (‘‘Plan’’). The

amendment revises the device-based

information fees payable by professional

subscribers to OPRA’s basic service.

Moreover, OPRA is establishing a new

‘‘enterprise rate’’ professional subscriber

fee as an alternative to the device-based

fee applicable to members of OPRA’s
4554 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 20 / Thursday, January 30, 1997 / Notices

2 Information pertaining to foreign currency

options (FCOs) is provided through OPRA’s FCO

Service, which fees are not affected by this filing.

3See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 36364

(October 12, 1995), 60 FR 54093 (October 19, 1995).

4See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 36817

(February 7, 1996), 61 FR 5827 (February 14, 1996).

5The proposed tiers are as follows: (1) For 1–9

devices, members pay $23.00 per device, and nonmembers pay $24.00 per device; (2) for 10–29

devices, members pay $14.00 per device, and nonmembers pay $19.00 per device; (3) for 30–99

devices, members pay $11.00 per device, and nonmembers pay $19.00 per device; (4) for 100–749

devices; members pay $11.00 per device, and nonmembers pay $12.75 per device; and (5) for 750+

devices, members pay $9.00 per device, and nonmembers pay $12.75 per device.

participant exchanges. OPRA has

designated this proposal as establishing

or changing a fee or other charge

collected on behalf of all of the OPRA

participants in connection with access

to or use of OPRA facilities, permitting

the proposal to become effective upon

filing pursuant to Rule 11Aa3–2(c)(3)(i)

under the Exchange Act. The

Commission is publishing this notice to

solicit comments from interested

persons on the amendment.

I. Description and Purpose of the

Amendment

The purpose of the amendment is to

revise the fees payable to OPRA by

professional subscribers for access to

OPRA’s basic service, which consists of

market data and related information

pertaining to equity and index options

(‘‘OPRA data’’).2 Professional

subscribers are those persons that

subscribe to OPRA data and do not

qualify for the reduced fees charged to

nonprofessional subscribers. OPRA’s

professional subscriber fees were last

revised in January 1996 pursuant to a

Plan amendment that initially proposed

a program of fee revisions to be

implemented in stages over a four-year

period.3 Subsequently, OPRA withdrew

that filing and filed instead only the first

stage of the fee revision program, with

the understanding that the

implementation of the remaining stages

would be the subject of separate filings.4

As was the case with the first stage,

this amendment is intended to increase

OPRA revenues derived from devicebased subscriber fees by less than 5% in

order to permit a greater share of the

costs of collecting, consolidating,

processing and transmitting OPRA data

to be covered by these fees, while at the

same time continuing the process of

simplifying the structure of the

professional subscriber fee by reducing

the number of pricing tiers for purposes

of the volume discount in the per device

fee.

The proposed changes in the level of

OPRA’s device-based professional

subscriber fees will reduce the fees paid

by smaller subscribers and increase the

fees paid by larger subscribers.5

Subscriber having less than four devices

will see their per device fees reduced by

$11 per month, while subscribers

having from four to nine devices will

see no change in their fees. On the other

hand, per device fees for larger

subscribers that do not elect the

alternative enterprise rate described

below will increase by amounts ranging

from $.35 to $.60 for members of

OPRA’s participant exchanges, with

somewhat higher increases for certain

categories of non-members, as a result of

the reduction in the number of nonmember volume discount tiers from six

to three. Moreover, subscriber fees

charged to members will be discounted

by 2% for members who preauthorize

payment by electronic funds transfer

through an automated clearinghouse

system.

As an alternative to the traditional

device-based subscriber fee, this

amendment also proposes the adoption

of a new ‘‘enterprise rate’’ subscriber

fee, which will permit members of

OPRA’s participant exchanges to pay a

flat monthly fee and thereby be

authorized to access OPRA data on any

number of devices at no additional cost.

The enterprise rate is based on the

number of registered representatives

employed by the subscriber, and is $10

per month per registered representative

in member firms having up to 20,000

registered representatives, and $7.50 per

month per registered representative in

member firms having more than 20,000

registered representatives. There is a

minimum monthly fee of $2,000 for

member firms electing the enterprise

rate. OPRA believes the enterprise rate

fee will be advantageous to a number of

subscribers because it will lower their

cost of access to OPRA data and

eliminate the burden of keeping track of

and reporting to OPRA the number of

their devices, and also because it will

give firms the flexibility to increase

access to OPRA data without additional

cost. Because the enterprise rate is based

on a member firm’s number of

representatives registered with the

National Association of Securities

Dealers, Inc. (‘‘NASD’’), the rate is only

applicable to member firm locations in

the United States. Non-U.S. offices of

member firms will continue to pay the

device-based fee with respect to those

offices, although at a volume discounted

rate that takes into account all of their

OPRA-enabled devices throughout the

world, including those devices in the

United States to which the enterprise

rate fee may apply.

OPRA is proposing these fee changes

because, as a result of the

implementation of systems and

equipment upgrades and additions in

order to increase the capacity and

enhance the reliability and security of

the OPRA system, the costs of

collecting, processing, consolidating

and disseminating OPRA data have

continued to increase. OPRA anticipates

continued escalation of these costs.

OPRA states that the device-based fee

increases provided for in the proposed

amendment are intended to cover these

costs. At the same time, by introducing

the new enterprise rate subscriber fee,

OPRA will be able to lower its costs of

administration by eliminating the need

to keep track of subscriber device

counts, and will pass on a portion of

these savings to enterprise rate

subscribers in the form of lower overall

costs of access. OPRA proposes to

implement the new fee structure

beginning on March 1, 1997.

II. Solicitation of Comments

Pursuant to Rule 11Aa3–2(c)(3), the

amendment is effective upon filing with

the Commission. The Commission may

summarily abrogate the amendment

within 60 days of its filing and require

refiling and approval of the amendment

by Commission order pursuant to Rule

11Aa3–2(c)(2), if it appears to the

Commission that such action is

necessary or appropriate in the public

interest; for the protection of investors

and the maintenance of fair and orderly

markets; to remove impediments to, and

perfect the mechanisms of, a National

Market System; or otherwise in

furtherance of the purposes of the

Exchange Act.

Interested persons are invited to

submit written data, views, and

arguments concerning the foregoing.

Persons making written submissions

should file six copies thereof with the

Secretary, Securities and Exchange

Commission, 450 Fifth Street, N.W.,

Washington, D.C. 20549. Copies of the

submission, all subsequent

amendments, and 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 withheld from the public in

accordance with the provisions of 5

U.S.C. 552, will be available for

inspection and copying in the

Commission’s Public Reference Room.

Copies of the filing also will be available

at the principal offices of OPRA. All
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 20 / Thursday, January 30, 1997 / Notices 4555

6 17 CFR 200.30–3(a)(29).

1 15 U.S.C. § 78s(b)(1) (1988).

2 17 CFR 240.19b–4.

3See letter from Claudia Crowley, Special

Counsel, Legal and Regulatory Policy, Amex, to

Matthew Morris, Division of Market Regulation

(‘‘Division’’), Commission, dated November 15,

1996 (‘‘Amendment No. 1’’). In Amendment No. 1,

the Amex amended its rule filing to restate Item 3(a)

in order to correct various errors contained in the

original filing and withdrew its request that the

proposed rule change be given accelerated

effectiveness pursuant to Section 19(b)(2) of the

Act.

4See letter from Claudia Crowley, Special

Counsel, Legal and Regulatory Policy, Amex, to

Matthew Morris, Division, Commission, dated

January 16, 1997 (‘‘Amendment No. 2’’). In

Amendment No. 2, the Amex withdrew its request

that the Computer Technology Index be given

preferential treatment with respect to position and

exercise limits and renewed its request that the

proposed rule change be given accelerated

effectiveness pursuant to Section 19(b)(2) of the

Act.

5Position limits impose a ceiling on the number

of option contracts which an investor or group of

investors acting in concert may hold or write in

each class of options on the same side of the market

(i.e., aggregating long calls and short puts or long

puts and short calls). Exercise limits prohibit an

investor or group of investors acting in concert from

exercising more than a specified number of puts or

calls in a particular class within five consecutive

business days.

6See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 36537

(November 30, 1995), 60 FR 62916 (December 7,

1995) (order establishing position and exercise

limits for narrow-based index options at 6,000,

9,000 or 12,000 contracts) (Amex–95–45).

submissions should refer to file number

SR–OPRA–97–1 and should be

submitted by February 15, 1997.

For the Commission, by the Division of

Market Regulation, pursuant to delegated

authority. 6

Margaret H. McFarland,

Deputy Secretary.

[FR Doc. 97–2257 Filed 1–29–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 8010–01–M

[Release No. 34–38202; File No. SR–Amex–

96–41]

Self-Regulatory Organizations; Notice

of Filing and Order Granting

Accelerated Approval of Proposed

Rule Change and Amendments Nos. 1

and 2 Thereto by the American Stock

Exchange, Inc., Relating to an Increase

in Narrow-Based Index Option Position

and Exercise Limits

January 23, 1997.

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

Securities Exchange Act of 1934

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

notice is hereby given that on November

1, 1996, the American Stock Exchange,

Inc. (‘‘Amex’’ or ‘‘Exchange’’) filed with

the Securities Exchange Commission

(‘‘Commission’’) the proposed rule

change as described in Items I and II

below, which Items have been prepared

by the self-regulatory organization. The

Amex subsequently filed Amendment

No. 1 to the proposed rule change on

November 15, 1996 3 and Amendment

No. 2 to the proposed rule change on

January 16, 1997.4 The Exchange has

requested accelerated approval for the

proposal. This order approves the

Amex’s proposal, as amended, on an

accelerated basis and solicits comments

from interested persons.

I. Self-Regulatory Organization’s

Statement of the Terms of Substance of

the Proposed Rule Change

The Amex is proposing to amend

Exchange Rule 904C to increase position

and exercise limits for narrow-based

index options from 6,000, 9,000, or

12,000 contracts to 9,000, 12,000, or

15,000 contracts.5

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

Amex 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 III below. The Amex 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

Exchange Rules 904C and 905C

provide that position and exercise limits

for narrow-based index options be set at

one of three levels depending upon the

weightings of the component securities

in such narrow-based index. Currently,

a narrow-based index option will have

a 6,000 contract limit if a single

component security accounts for more

than 30% of the index value; a 9,000

contract limit if a single component

security accounts for more than 20%

(but less than 30%) of the index value

or any five component securities

together account for more than 50% of

the index value; and a 12,000 contract

limit for those narrow-based indexes

that do not fall within any one of the

other categories.

According to the Exchange, stringent

position limits create difficulties for

investors in narrow-based index

options, especially for those

institutional investors who own large

portfolios of the component securities

and who generally use the options

markets to hedge those portfolios.

Therefore, the Exchange proposes an

increase in the position and exercise

limits to 9,000 for the lowest level;

12,000 for the middle level; and 15,000

for the highest level.

The Exchange believes that this

increase in position and exercise limits

is appropriate in that the current limits

have been in place since November 30,

1995,6 and the proposed increases are

consistent with the Commission’s

gradual approach to increase position

and exercise limits. According to the

Exchange, in the past year, there has

been a notable increase in narrow-based

index option trading. For example,

through September 1996, narrow-based

index option volume has increased 42%

over all of 1995. As discussed above, the

Exchange believes that these increases

are needed by investors and will thus

increase the depth and liquidity of the

market for narrow-based index options

without causing any market disruption.

In addition, the Exchange will continue

to monitor and surveil for manipulation

and violations of the position and

exercise limits through the use of the

monitoring systems currently in place.

2. Statutory Basis

The Exchange believes that the

proposed rule change is consistent with

Section 6(b) of the Act in general and

furthers the objectives of Section 6(b)(5)

in particular in that it is designed to

prevent fraudulent and manipulative

acts and practices, to promote just and

equitable principles of trade, and is not

designed to permit unfair

discrimination between customers,

issuers, brokers or dealers.

B. Self-Regulatory Organization’s

Statement on Burden on Competition

The Amex does not believe that the

proposed rule change will impose any

inappropriate burden on competition.

C. Self-Regulatory Organization’s

Statement on Comments on the

Proposed Rule Change Received From

Members, Participants, or Others

Comments were neither solicited nor

received with respect to the proposed

rule change.

III. Solicitation of Comments

Interested persons are invited to

submit written data, views, and

arguments concerning the foregoing.

Persons making written submissions

should file six copies thereof with the

Secretary, Securities and Exchange

Commission, 450 Fifth Street, N.W.,