39480 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 154 / Thursday, August 9, 2018 / Notices 

ADDRESSES: Submit comments 

electronically via the Commission’s 

Filing Online system at http://

www.prc.gov. Those who cannot submit 

comments electronically should contact 

the person identified in the FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT section by 

telephone for advice on filing 

alternatives. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

David A. Trissell, General Counsel, at 

202–789–6820. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Table of Contents 

I. Introduction 

II. Docketed Proceeding(s) 

I. Introduction 

The Commission gives notice that the 

Postal Service filed request(s) for the 

Commission to consider matters related 

to negotiated service agreement(s). The 

request(s) may propose the addition or 

removal of a negotiated service 

agreement from the market dominant or 

the competitive product list, or the 

modification of an existing product 

currently appearing on the market 

dominant or the competitive product 

list. 

Section II identifies the docket 

number(s) associated with each Postal 

Service request, the title of each Postal 

Service request, the request’s acceptance 

date, and the authority cited by the 

Postal Service for each request. For each 

request, the Commission appoints an 

officer of the Commission to represent 

the interests of the general public in the 

proceeding, pursuant to 39 U.S.C. 505 

(Public Representative). Section II also 

establishes comment deadline(s) 

pertaining to each request. 

The public portions of the Postal 

Service’s request(s) can be accessed via 

the Commission’s website (http://

www.prc.gov). Non-public portions of 

the Postal Service’s request(s), if any, 

can be accessed through compliance 

with the requirements of 39 CFR 

3007.40. 

The Commission invites comments on 

whether the Postal Service’s request(s) 

in the captioned docket(s) are consistent 

with the policies of title 39. For 

request(s) that the Postal Service states 

concern market dominant product(s), 

applicable statutory and regulatory 

requirements include 39 U.S.C. 3622, 39 

U.S.C. 3642, 39 CFR part 3010, and 39 

CFR part 3020, subpart B. For request(s) 

that the Postal Service states concern 

competitive product(s), applicable 

statutory and regulatory requirements 

include 39 U.S.C. 3632, 39 U.S.C. 3633, 

39 U.S.C. 3642, 39 CFR part 3015, and 

39 CFR part 3020, subpart B. Comment 

deadline(s) for each request appear in 

section II. 

II. Docketed Proceeding(s) 

1. Docket No(s).: MC2018–203 and 

CP2018–282; Filing Title: USPS Request 

to Add Priority Mail Contract 459 to 

Competitive Product List and Notice of 

Filing Materials Under Seal; Filing 

Acceptance Date: August 3, 2018; Filing 

Authority: 39 U.S.C. 3642 and 39 CFR 

3020.30 et seq.; Public Representative: 

Christopher C. Mohr, Comments Due: 

August 13, 2018. 

This Notice will be published in the 

Federal Register. 

Stacy L. Ruble, 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2018–17035 Filed 8–8–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7710–FW–P 

POSTAL SERVICE 

Product Change—Priority Mail 

Negotiated Service Agreement 

AGENCY: Postal ServiceTM. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Postal Service gives 

notice of filing a request with the Postal 

Regulatory Commission to add a 

domestic shipping services contract to 

the list of Negotiated Service 

Agreements in the Mail Classification 

Schedule’s Competitive Products List. 

DATES: Date of required notice: August 

9, 2018. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Elizabeth Reed, 202–268–3179. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

United States Postal Service® hereby 

gives notice that, pursuant to 39 U.S.C. 

3642 and 3632(b)(3), on August 3, 2018, 

it filed with the Postal Regulatory 

Commission a USPS Request to Add 

Priority Mail Contract 459 to 

Competitive Product List. Documents 

are available at www.prc.gov, Docket 

Nos. MC2018–203, CP2018–282. 

Elizabeth Reed, 

Attorney, Corporate and Postal Business Law. 

[FR Doc. 2018–17018 Filed 8–8–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7710–12–P 

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE 

COMMISSION 

Submission for OMB Review; 

Comment Request 

Upon Written Request, Copy Available 

From: Securities and Exchange 

Commission, Office of FOIA Services, 

100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 

20549–2736 

Extension: 

Rule 12b–1, SEC File No. 270–188, OMB 

Control No. 3235–0212 

Notice is hereby given that, pursuant 

to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), the Securities 

and Exchange Commission (the 

‘‘Commission’’) has submitted to the 

Office of Management and Budget 

(‘‘OMB’’) a request for extension of the 

previously approved collection of 

information discussed below. 

Rule 12b–1 under the Investment 

Company Act of 1940 (17 CFR 270.12b– 

1) permits a registered open-end 

investment company (‘‘fund’’) to bear 

expenses associated with the 

distribution of its shares, provided that 

the fund complies with certain 

requirements, including, among other 

things, that it adopt a written plan 

(‘‘rule 12b–1 plan’’) and that it preserves 

in writing any agreements relating to the 

rule 12b–1 plan. The rule in part 

requires that (i) the adoption or material 

amendment of a rule 12b–1 plan be 

approved by the fund’s directors, 

including its independent directors, 

and, in certain circumstances, its 

shareholders; (ii) the board review 

quarterly reports of amounts spent 

under the rule 12b–1 plan; and (iii) the 

board, including the independent 

directors, consider continuation of the 

rule 12b–1 plan and any related 

agreements at least annually. Rule 12b– 

1 also requires funds relying on the rule 

to preserve for six years, the first two 

years in an easily accessible place, 

copies of the rule 12b–1 plan and any 

related agreements and reports, as well 

as minutes of board meetings that 

describe the factors considered and the 

basis for adopting or continuing a rule 

12b–1 plan. 

Rule 12b–1 also prohibits funds from 

paying for distribution of fund shares 

with brokerage commissions on their 

portfolio transactions. The rule requires 

funds that use broker-dealers that sell 

their shares to also execute their 

portfolio securities transactions, to 

implement policies and procedures 

reasonably designed to prevent: (i) The 

persons responsible for selecting brokerdealers to effect transactions in fund 

portfolio securities from taking into 

account broker-dealers’ promotional or 

sales efforts when making those 

decisions; and (ii) a fund, its adviser, or 

its principal underwriter, from entering 

into any agreement under which the 

fund directs brokerage transactions or 

revenue generated by those transactions 

to a broker-dealer to pay for distribution 

of the fund’s (or any other fund’s) 

shares. 

The board and shareholder approval 

requirements of rule 12b–1 are designed 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 154 / Thursday, August 9, 2018 / Notices 39481 

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

2 17 CFR 240.19b–4. 

3 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(A). 

4 17 CFR 240.19b–4(f)(2). 

5 17 CFR 240.19b–4(f)(4). 

6Capitalized terms used herein and not otherwise 

defined shall have the meaning assigned to such 

terms in, available at http://dtcc.com/∼/media/ 

Files/Downloads/legal/rules/nscc_rules.pdf. 

to ensure that fund shareholders and 

directors receive adequate information 

to evaluate and approve a rule 12b–1 

plan and, thus, are necessary for 

investor protection. The requirement of 

quarterly reporting to the board is 

designed to ensure that the rule 12b–1 

plan continues to benefit the fund and 

its shareholders. The recordkeeping 

requirements of the rule are necessary to 

enable Commission staff to oversee 

compliance with the rule. The 

requirement that funds or their advisers 

implement, and fund boards approve, 

policies and procedures in order to 

prevent persons charged with allocating 

fund brokerage from taking distribution 

efforts into account is designed to 

ensure that funds’ selection of brokers to 

effect portfolio securities transactions is 

not influenced by considerations about 

the sale of fund shares. 

Commission staff estimates that there 

are approximately 7,858 fund portfolios 

that have at least one share class subject 

to a rule 12b–1 plan and approximately 

323 fund families with common boards 

of directors that have at least one fund 

with a 12b–1 plan. The Commission 

further estimates that the annual hour 

burden for complying with the rule is 

425 hours for each fund family with a 

portfolio that has a rule 12b–1 plan. We 

therefore estimate that the total hourly 

burden per year for all funds to comply 

with current information collection 

requirements under rule 12b–1 is 

137,275 hours. Commission staff 

estimates that approximately three 

funds per year prepare a proxy in 

connection with the adoption or 

material amendment of a rule 12b–1 

plan. The staff further estimates that the 

cost of each fund’s proxy is $34,849. 

Thus, the total annual cost burden of 

rule 12b–1 to the fund industry is 

$104,547. 

Estimates of average burden hours 

and costs are made solely for purposes 

of the Paperwork Reduction Act and are 

not derived from a comprehensive or 

even representative survey or study of 

the costs of Commission rules and 

forms. The collections of information 

required by Rule 12b–1 are necessary to 

obtain the benefits of the rule. Notices 

to the Commission 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: Shagufta_

Ahmed@omb.eop.gov; and (ii) Pamela 

Dyson, Director/Chief Information 

Officer, Securities and Exchange 

Commission, c/o Candace Kenner, 100 F 

Street NE, Washington, DC 20549 or 

send an email to: PRA_Mailbox@

sec.gov. Comments must be submitted to 

OMB within 30 days of this notice. 

Dated: August 3, 2018. 

Eduardo A. Aleman, 

Assistant Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2018–16998 Filed 8–8–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 8011–01–P 

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE 

COMMISSION 

[Release No. 34–83774; File No. SR–NSCC– 

2018–005] 

Self-Regulatory Organizations; 

National Securities Clearing 

Corporation; Notice of Filing and 

Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed 

Rule Change To Provide for the 

Delivery of Certain Transaction Data 

Relating to Variable Annuity and 

Variable Life Insurance Subaccounts 

and Implement Fees Associated With 

This Proposed Feature 

August 3, 2018. 

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

Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as 

amended (‘‘Act’’),1 and Rule 19b–4 

thereunder,2 notice is hereby given that 

on July 26, 2018, National Securities 

Clearing Corporation (‘‘NSCC’’) filed 

with the Securities and Exchange 

Commission (‘‘Commission’’) the 

proposed rule change as described in 

Items I, II and III below, which Items 

have been prepared by the clearing 

agency. NSCC filed the proposed rule 

change pursuant to Section 19(b)(3)(A) 3

of the Act and subparagraphs (f)(2) 4 and 

(f)(4) 5 of Rule 19b–4 thereunder. The 

Commission is publishing this notice to 

solicit comments on the proposed rule 

change from interested persons. 

I. Clearing Agency’s Statement of the 

Terms of Substance of the Proposed 

Rule Change 

The proposed rule change consists of 

modifications to NSCC’s Rules & 

Procedures (‘‘Rules’’) in order to reflect 

proposed enhancements to NSCC’s 

Insurance and Retirement Processing 

Services (‘‘I&RS’’). The proposed rule 

change would enhance existing I&RS 

services to provide for the delivery of 

certain transaction data relating to 

variable annuity and variable life 

insurance subaccounts (‘‘variable 

product subaccounts’’) and implement 

fees associated with this proposed 

feature, as described in greater detail 

below.6

II. Clearing Agency’s Statement of the 

Purpose of, and Statutory Basis for, the 

Proposed Rule Change 

In its filing with the Commission, the 

clearing agency 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 

clearing agency has prepared 

summaries, set forth in sections A, B, 

and C below, of the most significant 

aspects of such statements. 

(A) Clearing Agency’s Statement of the 

Purpose of, and Statutory Basis for, the 

Proposed Rule Change 

1. Purpose 

The proposed rule change consists of 

modifications to the Rules in order to 

reflect proposed enhancements to I&RS 

services. The proposed rule change 

would enhance existing I&RS services to 

provide for the delivery of certain 

transaction data relating to variable 

product subaccounts and implement 

fees associated with this proposed 

feature, as described in greater detail 

below. 

(i) Variable Product Subaccounts 

An annuity is a contract between a 

holder and an insurance carrier 

pursuant to which the holder makes an 

upfront payment to an insurance carrier 

and the insurance carrier agrees to pay 

the holder periodic payments at a future 

date. A variable annuity is a type of 

annuity that allows the holder to choose 

from a selection of investment options, 

or ‘‘subaccounts,’’ within the annuity 

and the periodic payments paid by the 

insurance carrier are determined, in 

part, by the performance of the 

subaccounts selected by the holder. A 

variable life insurance contract operates 

in a similar manner. The variable life 

insurance carries a ‘‘cash value’’ and the 

purchaser can choose from a selection of 

investment subaccounts to invest the 

cash value. The subaccounts for variable 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES