Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 241 / Friday, December 14, 2012 / Rules and Regulations 74351 

requesters are limited to the cost of 

providing standard duplication services 

alone, without charge for the first 100 

pages reproduced. To qualify for this 

category, requesters must show that the 

request made is authorized by and 

under the auspices of an eligible 

institution and that the records are not 

sought for a commercial use, but are 

sought in furtherance of scholarly 

research (if the request is from an 

educational institution) or scientific 

research (if the request is from a noncommercial scientific institution). 

(1) The term ‘‘educational institution’’ 

refers to preschools, public or private 

elementary or secondary schools, 

institutions of graduate or 

undergraduate higher education, 

institutions of professional education, 

and institutions of vocational education 

operating one or more programs of 

scholarly research. 

(2) The term ‘‘non-commercial 

scientific institution’’ refers to an 

institution that is not operated on a 

‘‘commercial’’ basis, and which is 

operated solely for the purpose of 

conducting scientific research. 

(e) For requesters who are 

representatives of the news media, fees 

will also be limited to the cost of 

providing duplication services alone, 

without charge for the first 100 pages 

reproduced. No fee will be charged for 

providing search or review services. 

(1) The term ‘‘representative of the 

news media’’ refers to a person actively 

gathering news for an entity that is 

organized and operated to publish or 

broadcast news to the public. 

(2) The term ‘‘news’’ means 

information that is about current events 

or that would be of current interest to 

the public. 

(3) Examples of news media entities 

include television or radio stations 

broadcasting to the public, and 

publishers of periodicals which 

disseminate news and who make their 

products available for purchase or 

subscription by the general public. 

(4) Freelance journalists may be 

regarded as working for a news 

organization if they can demonstrate a 

sufficient basis for expecting 

publication through that organization, 

even though not actually employed by 

it. 

(f) Fees for all other requesters who do 

not fit into any of the above categories 

will be assessed for the full reasonable 

direct cost of searching for and 

duplicating documents that are 

responsive to a request. No charge will 

be made to requesters in this category 

for the first 100 pages reproduced or for 

the first two hours of search time. 

(g) CIGIE will assess fees for searches 

which fail to locate records or which 

locate records which are exempt from 

disclosure at the same rate as searches 

which result in disclosure of records. 

(h) If a fee is incurred in connection 

with a request or an appeal in 

accordance with this section, CIGIE will 

inform the requester of the amount 

owed and the basis for the fee amount. 

(i) Payment for outstanding fees 

incurred will be billed to the fullest 

extent possible at the time the requested 

records are forwarded to the requester. 

Payments must be made by requesters 

within 30 days of the date of the billing. 

(j) In cases where the estimated fees 

to be charged exceed $250.00, CIGIE 

may require payment of the entire fee or 

a portion of the fee before it provides 

any of the requested records. 

(k) CIGIE shall require full payment of 

any delinquent fee owed by the 

requester plus any applicable interest 

prior to releasing records on a 

subsequent request or appeal. If a 

requester declines to remit payment in 

advance, CIGIE may refuse to process 

the request or appeal with written 

notice to that effect provided to the 

requester. The ‘‘date of receipt’’ appeal 

for which advance payment has been 

required shall be the date CIGIE receives 

payment. 

§ 9800.16 Interest charges. 

For requests that result in fees 

assessed, CIGIE may begin levying 

interest charges on an unpaid bill 

starting on the 31st day following the 

day on which the billing was sent. 

Interest will be assessed at the rate 

prescribed under 31 U.S.C. 3717, and 

will accrue from the date of the billing. 

§ 9800.17 Aggregating requests. 

If CIGIE reasonably believes that a 

requester, or group of requesters acting 

in concert, is attempting to break down 

a request into a series of requests for the 

purpose of evading the assessment of 

fees, CIGIE may aggregate any such 

requests and charge accordingly. 

§ 9800.18 Fee waivers and reductions. 

(a) CIGIE may waive or reduce fees if 

disclosure of the information sought is 

deemed to be in the public interest. A 

request is made in the public interest if 

it is likely to contribute significantly to 

public understanding of the operations 

or activities of the Federal Government, 

and is not primarily in the commercial 

interest of the requester. 

(b) When determining fee waiver 

requests, CIGIE will consider the 

following six factors: 

(1) The subject of the request: 

Whether the subject of the requested 

records concerns the operations or 

activities of the Federal Government; 

(2) The informative value of the 

information to be disclosed: Whether 

the disclosure is likely to contribute to 

an understanding of Federal 

Government operations or activities; 

(3) The contribution to an 

understanding of the subject by the 

public likely to result from the 

disclosure: Whether the disclosure will 

contribute to the public understanding; 

(4) The significance of the 

contribution to the public 

understanding: Whether the disclosure 

is likely to significantly contribute to 

the public understanding of Federal 

Government operations or activities; 

(5) The existence and magnitude of a 

commercial interest: Whether the 

requester has a commercial interest that 

would be furthered by the disclosure of 

the requested records; and 

(6) The primary interest in disclosure: 

Whether the magnitude of an identified 

commercial interest of the requester is 

sufficiently large, in comparison with 

the public interest in disclosure, that 

disclosure is primarily in the 

commercial interest of the requester. 

(c) CIGIE may, in its discretion, waive 

or reduce fees associated with a records 

request, regardless of whether a waiver 

or reduction has been requested, if the 

agency determines that disclosure will 

primarily benefit the general public. 

(d) CIGIE will waive fees without 

discretion in all circumstances where 

the amount of the fee is $25.00 or less. 

(e) CIGIE will notify the requester 

regarding whether the fee waiver has 

been granted. A requester may appeal a 

denial of a fee waiver request only after 

a final decision has been made on the 

initial FOIA request. 

Dated: December 4, 2012. 

Phyllis K. Fong, 

Chairperson of the Council of the Inspectors 

General on Integrity and Efficiency. 

[FR Doc. 2012–30131 Filed 12–13–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6820–C9–M 

COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING 

COMMISSION 

17 CFR Part 1 

Fees for Reviews of the Rule 

Enforcement Programs of Designated 

Contract Markets and Registered 

Futures Associations 

AGENCY: Commodity Futures Trading 

Commission. 

ACTION: Notice of FY 2012 schedule of 

fees. 

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74352 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 241 / Friday, December 14, 2012 / Rules and Regulations 

1NFA is the only registered futures association. 

2See section 237 of the Futures Trading Act of 

1982, 7 U.S.C. 16a, and 31 U.S.C. 9701. For a 

broader discussion of the history of Commission 

fees, see 52 FR 46070, Dec. 4, 1987. 

3 58 FR 42643, Aug. 11, 1993 and 17 CFR part 1, 

app. B. 

SUMMARY: The Commission charges fees 

to designated contract markets and 

registered futures associations to recover 

the costs incurred by the Commission in 

the operation of its program of oversight 

of self-regulatory organization rule 

enforcement programs, specifically 

National Futures Association, a 

registered futures association, and the 

designated contract markets. The 

calculation of the fee amounts charged 

for FY 2012 by this notice is based upon 

an average of actual program costs 

incurred during FY 2009, 2010, and 

2011. 

DATES: Effective Date: Each SRO is 

required to remit electronically the fee 

applicable to it on or before February 

12, 2013. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Mark Carney, Chief Financial Officer, 

Commodity Futures Trading 

Commission, (202) 418–5477, Three 

Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street NW., 

Washington, DC 20581. For information 

on electronic payment, contact Jennifer 

Fleming, Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 

21st Street NW., Washington, DC 20581, 

(202) 418–5034. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background Information 

A. General 

This notice relates to fees for the 

Commission’s review of the rule 

enforcement programs at the registered 

futures associations 1 and designated 

contract markets (DCM) each of which 

is a self-regulatory organization (SRO) 

regulated by the Commission. The 

Commission recalculates the fees 

charged each year to cover the costs of 

operating this Commission program.2

All costs are accounted for by the 

Commission’s Budget Program Activity 

Codes (BPAC) system, formerly the 

Management Accounting Structure 

Codes (MASC) system, which records 

each employee’s time for each pay 

period. The fees are set each year based 

on direct program costs, plus an 

overhead factor. The Commission 

calculates actual costs, then calculates 

an alternate fee taking volume into 

account, then charges the lower of the 

two.3

B. Overhead Rate 

The fees charged by the Commission 

to the SROs are designed to recover 

program costs, including direct labor 

costs and overhead. The overhead rate 

is calculated by dividing total 

Commission-wide overhead direct 

program labor costs into the total 

amount of the Commission-wide 

overhead pool. For this purpose, direct 

program labor costs are the salary costs 

of personnel working in all Commission 

programs. Overhead costs consist 

generally of the following Commissionwide costs: indirect personnel costs 

(leave and benefits), rent, 

communications, contract services, 

utilities, equipment, and supplies. This 

formula has resulted in the following 

overhead rates for the most recent three 

years (rounded to the nearest whole 

percent): 147 percent for fiscal year 

2009, 153 percent for fiscal year 2010, 

and 145 percent for fiscal year 2011. 

C. Conduct of SRO Rule Enforcement 

Reviews 

Under the formula adopted by the 

Commission in 1993, the Commission 

calculates the fee to recover the costs of 

its rule enforcement reviews and 

examinations, based on the three-year 

average of the actual cost of performing 

such reviews and examinations at each 

SRO. The cost of operation of the 

Commission’s SRO oversight program 

varies from SRO to SRO, according to 

the size and complexity of each SRO’s 

program. The three-year averaging 

computation method is intended to 

smooth out year-to-year variations in 

cost. Timing of the Commission’s 

reviews and examinations may affect 

costs—a review or examination may 

span two fiscal years and reviews and 

examinations are not conducted at each 

SRO each year. 

As noted above, adjustments to actual 

costs may be made to relieve the burden 

on an SRO with a disproportionately 

large share of program costs. The 

Commission’s formula provides for a 

reduction in the assessed fee if an SRO 

has a smaller percentage of United 

States industry contract volume than its 

percentage of overall Commission 

oversight program costs. This 

adjustment reduces the costs so that, as 

a percentage of total Commission SRO 

oversight program costs, they are in line 

with the pro rata percentage for that 

SRO of United States industry-wide 

contract volume. 

The calculation is made as follows: 

The fee required to be paid to the 

Commission by each DCM is equal to 

the lesser of actual costs based on the 

three-year historical average of costs for 

that DCM or one-half of average costs 

incurred by the Commission for each 

DCM for the most recent three years, 

plus a pro rata share (based on average 

trading volume for the most recent three 

years) of the aggregate of average annual 

costs of all DCMs for the most recent 

three years. The formula for calculating 

the second factor is: 0.5a + 0.5 vt = 

current fee. In this formula, ‘‘a’’ equals 

the average annual costs, ‘‘v’’ equals the 

percentage of total volume across DCMs 

over the last three years, and ‘‘t’’ equals 

the average annual costs for all DCMs. 

NFA has no contracts traded; hence, its 

fee is based simply on costs for the most 

recent three fiscal years. This table 

summarizes the data used in the 

calculations of the resulting fee for each 

entity: 

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Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 241 / Friday, December 14, 2012 / Rules and Regulations 74353 

An example of how the fee is 

calculated for one exchange, the 

Chicago Board of Trade, is set forth 

here: 

a. Actual three-year average costs 

equal $78,553. 

b. The alternative computation is: (.5) 

($78,553) + (.5) (.274) ($1,340,083) = 

$222,868. 

c. The fee is the lesser of a or b; in 

this case $78,553. 

As noted above, the alternative 

calculation based on contracts traded is 

not applicable to NFA because it is not 

a DCM and has no contracts traded. The 

Commission’s average annual cost for 

conducting oversight review of the NFA 

rule enforcement program during fiscal 

years 2009 through 2011 was $577,549 

(one-third of $1,732,647). The fee to be 

paid by the NFA for the current fiscal 

year is $577,549. 

II. Schedule of Fees 

Therefore, fees for the Commission’s 

review of the rule enforcement programs 

at the registered futures associations and 

DCMs regulated by the Commission are 

as follows: 

2012 fee 

lesser of actual or 

calculated fee 

CBOE Futures ............................................................................................................................................................................. $17,611 

Chicago Board of Trade .............................................................................................................................................................. 78,553 

Chicago Climate Exchange ......................................................................................................................................................... 497 

Chicago Mercantile Exchange ..................................................................................................................................................... 548,855 

ICE Futures U.S. ......................................................................................................................................................................... 88,143 

Kansas City Board of Trade ........................................................................................................................................................ 44,642 

Minneapolis Grain Exchange ....................................................................................................................................................... 35,730 

New York Mercantile Exchange .................................................................................................................................................. 227,640 

New York LIFFE .......................................................................................................................................................................... 71,111 

Subtotal ................................................................................................................................................................................. 1,112,781 

National Futures Association ....................................................................................................................................................... 577,549 

Total ............................................................................................................................................................................... 1,690,330 

III. Payment Method 

The Debt Collection Improvement Act 

(DCIA) requires deposits of fees owed to 

the government by electronic transfer of 

funds (See 31 U.S.C. 3720). For 

information about electronic payments, 

please contact Jennifer Fleming at (202) 

418–5034 or jfleming@cftc.gov, or see 

the CFTC Web site at www.cftc.gov, 

specifically, www.cftc.gov/cftc/ 

cftcelectronicpayments.htm. 

Issued in Washington, DC on this 11th day 

of December 2012, by the Commission. 

Sauntia S. Warfield, 

Assistant Secretary of the Commission. 

[FR Doc. 2012–30224 Filed 12–13–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE P 

PENSION BENEFIT GUARANTY 

CORPORATION 

29 CFR Part 4022 

Benefits Payable in Terminated SingleEmployer Plans; Interest Assumptions 

for Paying Benefits 

AGENCY: Pension Benefit Guaranty 

Corporation. 

ACTION: Final rule. 


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