51708 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 191 / Thursday, October 2, 1997 / Notices

The Plan provides for the collection and

dissemination of last sale and quotation information

on options that are traded on the 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 Exchange (‘‘PCX’’); and the Philadelphia

Stock Exchange (‘‘Phlx’’).

2The proposal would require vendors to obtain

a written agreement from each OPRA subscriber

whose customers will be provided the dial-up

service from the vendor that the subscriber will: (1)

Obtain from each of its customers to whom the

vendor furnishes the service an agreement that the

customer will: (a) To receive OPRA data only for

such person’s use, (b) to not retransmit the data to

anyone else, and (c) to acknowledge that OPRA data

is the property of the respective exchange or market

in which a reported transaction occurred or a

reported quotation was entered; (2) provide to the

vendor a current list of customers entitled to receive

the service from the vendor and to certify that each

named customer has entered into the required

agreement; (3) maintain the same customer records

required to be maintained by the vendor with

respect to customers; and (4) acknowledge the

absence of any guarantee and the disclaimer of

liability on the part of OPRA, OPRA’s processor and

each participating exchange.

317 CFR 200.30–3(a)(29).

1OPRA is a National Market System Plan

approved by the Commission pursuant to Section

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

thereunder. See 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 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 Exchange (‘‘PCX’’); and the Philadelphia

Stock Exchange (‘‘Phlx’’).

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 Dial-Up Market

Data Service Rider (‘‘Rider’’) to OPRA’s

vendor agreement to accommodate a

third party vendor’s provision of dial-up

service to customers of an OPRA

subscriber. 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

add provisions to OPRA’s Dial-Up

Market Service Data Service Rider to the

vendor agreement to accommodate the

situation in which an OPRA vendor

provides a dial-up service to the

customers of an OPRA subscriber, rather

than to its own customers. According to

OPRA, several vendors and brokerdealer subscribers have recently

expressed interest in such an

arrangement. As this arrangement is not

currently contemplated under the Rider,

the proposal would amend the Rider to

address the one significant difference

between the traditional situation of a

firm providing a dial-up service to its

own customers and the recent proposals

for firms to arrange for third-party

vendors to provide a dial-up service for

the firm’s customers. In the former case,

there is a direct contractual relationship

between the vendor, a party to the

Rider, and the vendor’s customers. In

the latter case, however, the vendor’s

subscriber, rather than the vendor, has

a contractual relationship with the

customer.

In its current form, the Rider imposes

certain obligations on vendors who

provide a dial-up service. These

obligations require that contracts

between vendors and their customers

contain specific provisions, for the

benefit of OPRA, relating to proprietary

rights to OPRA data, non-retransmission

of data, the absence of any guarantee of

the data and a disclaimer of liability.

The proposed amendment to the Rider

would mandate that vendors require

comparable provisions to be included in

contracts between subscribers and their

customers who receive a dial-up service

from a third-party vendor. In a situation

where the vendor, and not the

subscriber, actually provides the dial-up

service to the subscriber’s customers,

only the vendor will be a party to a

Rider. Accordingly, the proposed

amendment would make it a condition

to a vendor’s providing a dial-up service

to the customers of a subscriber that the

subscriber must agree, in writing, with

the vendor to include the requisite

provisions in its written agreements

with its customers.2

Other than as described above, OPRA

proposes no change in the way in which

dial-up services may be offered to

investors. OPRA represents that no new

or additional OPRA fees will result from

this proposed amendment and the

amendment will not make any new

parties subject to OPRA’s existing fees.

II. Implementation of the Plan

Amendment

The proposed amendment will be

reflected in a revised form of Rider that

will be phased in to take the place of the

existing Rider, subject to Commission

approval.

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, NW.,

Washington, DC 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

Submissions should refer to file number

SR–OPRA–97–4 and should be

submitted by October 23, 1997.

For the Commission, by the Division of

Market Regulation, pursuant to delegated

authority.3

Margaret H. McFarland,

Deputy Secretary,

[FR Doc. 97–26146 Filed 10–1–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 8010–01–M

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE

COMMISSION

[Release No. 34–39131; File No. SR–OPRA–

97–3]

Options Price Reporting Authority;

Notice of Filing and Immediate

Effectiveness of Amendment to OPRA

Plan Revising Professional Subscriber

Fees and Eliminating the Requirement

That Enterprise Rate-Based Fees Must

Be Paid by Electronic Funds Transfer

September 25, 1997.

Pursuant to Rule 11Aa3–2 under the

Securities and Exchange Act of 1934

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

that on September 9, 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

fees paid by professional subscribers for

OPRA’s Basic Service, effective January

1, 1998. In addition, the amendment

eliminates a requirement that persons

electing to pay the enterprise rate-based

subscriber fee must arrange for payment

by electronic funds transfer. 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
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 191 / Thursday, October 2, 1997 / Notices 51709

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. 38467

(April 2, 1997), 62 FR 17652 (April 10, 1997).

4See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 36364

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

5See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 36817

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

6The proposed tiers are as follows: (1) for 1–9

devices, members pay $15.00 per device and nonmembers pay $24.00 per device; (2) for 10–29

devices, members pay $15.00 per device and nonmembers pay $20.00 per device; (3) for 30–99

devices, members pay $12.00 per device and nonmembers pay $20 per device; (4) for 100–749

devices, members pay $12.00 per device and nonmembers pay $14.50 per device; and (5) for 750+

devices, members pay $9.40 per device and nonmembers pay $14.50 per device. 7 17 CFR 200.30–3(a)(29).

filing pursuant to Rule 11Aa3–2(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 who

subscribe to OPRA Data and do not

qualify for the reduced fees charged to

nonprofessional subscribers. The Basic

Service professional subscriber fee was

last amended in April 1997,3 which, in

turn, followed an earlier Plan

amendment that initially proposed a

program of fee revisions to be

implemented in stages over a four-year

period.4 Subsequently, OPRA amended

that filing to propose 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.5 This

amendment proposes the third stage of

the fee revision program. Like the first

two stages, this amendment is intended

to increase OPRA revenues derived from

device-based subscriber fees by less

than 5% in order to permit a greater

share of the costs of collecting,

consolidating, processing and

transmitting options market information

to be covered by professional subscriber

fees. This amendment also continues

the process of simplifying the structure

of the professional subscriber fee by

reducing the number of member rate

pricing tiers from four to three for

purposes of the volume discount in the

per-device fee.

Similar to the past two years’ fee

revisions, the proposed changes in the

level of OPRA’s device-based

professional subscriber fee will reduce

or leave the fees paid by the smallest

subscribers and increase the fees paid

by larger subscribers.6 Subscriber fees

charged to members will continue to be

discounted by 2% for members who

preauthorize payment by electronic

funds transfer through an automated

clearinghouse system. OPRA estimates

that the overall effect of these fee

revisions will be to increase revenues

derived from device-based professional

subscriber fees by slightly less than 5%.

OPRA proposes the fee revisions as a

result of the continued implementation

of systems and equipment upgrades and

additions to increase the capacity and

enhance the reliability and security of

the OPRA system. The costs of

collection, processing, consolidating

and disseminating options last sale and

bid/ask information have continued to

increase, and further increases are

anticipated. The modest increases in

device-based fees provided for in the

proposed amendment are intended to

permit some increase in device-based

revenues to cover these greater

expenses.

OPRA also proposes to amend Section

2 of the Enterprise Rate Amendment to

its Professional Subscriber Agreement to

eliminate the requirement that the

enterprise rate-based fee must be paid

by electronic funds transfer. Although

this requirement was originally

included to simplify the billing and

collection of OPRA’s enterprise rate

subscriber fee and thereby lower

OPRA’s costs of administration, OPRA’s

experience over the past year has

suggested that a number of firms are not

yet organized in a manner that

facilitates electronic funds transfers.

Accordingly, OPRA believes that this

requirement prevented certain firms

from taking advantage of the enterprise

rate agreement when they might

otherwise have elected to do so. To

eliminate this impediment to a broader

acceptance of the enterprise rate

arrangement, OPRA has decided to

eliminate the electronic fund transfer

requirement. Instead, to encourage

timely payment of the enterprise rate

fees, OPRA proposes to impose interest

charges on amounts not paid by the end

of the month following the month in

which the fees are invoiced. Interest

charges will be calculated as the lesser

of the prime rate plus three percent or

the maximum lawful rate of interest.

Although this amendment was filed

for immediate effectiveness pursuant to

Rule 11Aa3–2(c)(3)(i), the revised

subscriber fees will be put into effect as

of January 1, 1998 to provide

subscribers advance notice of the

changed fees. The elimination of the

electronic funds transfer requirement for

payment of the enterprise rate

subscriber fee will be effective

immediately.

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

submissions should refer to file number

SR–OPRA–97–3 and should be

submitted by October 21, 1997.

For the Commission, by the Division of

Market Regulation, pursuant to delegated

authority.7

Margaret H. McFarland,

Deputy Secretary.

[FR Doc. 97–26148 Filed 10–1–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 8010–01–P