Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 13 / Friday, January 19, 2018 / Notices 2823 

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

2 17 CFR 240.19b–4. 

3See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 82162 

(November 28, 2017), 82 FR 57322 (‘‘Notice’’). 

4See Exchange Rule 971.1NY. 

5See Exchange Rule 971.1NY(c)(4)(A)–(F) 

(providing the scenarios that would result in the 

early termination of a CUBE Auction). 

presenters should provide the Cognizant 

ACRS Staff with a CD containing each 

presentation at least 30 minutes before 

the meeting. 

In accordance with Subsection 10(d) 

of Public Law 92–463 and 5 U.S.C. 

552b(c), certain portions of this meeting 

may be closed, as specifically noted 

above. Use of still, motion picture, and 

television cameras during the meeting 

may be limited to selected portions of 

the meeting as determined by the 

Chairman. Electronic recordings will be 

permitted only during the open portions 

of the meeting. 

ACRS meeting agendas, meeting 

transcripts, and letter reports are 

available through the NRC Public 

Document Room at pdr.resource@

nrc.gov, or by calling the PDR at 1–800– 

397–4209, or from the Publicly 

Available Records System (PARS) 

component of NRC’s document system 

(ADAMS) which is accessible from the 

NRC website at http://www.nrc.gov/ 

reading-rm/adams.html or http://

www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doccollections/ACRS/. 

Video teleconferencing service is 

available for observing open sessions of 

ACRS meetings. Those wishing to use 

this service should contact Mr. Theron 

Brown, ACRS Audio Visual Technician 

(301–415–6702), between 7:30 a.m. and 

3:45 p.m. (ET), at least 10 days before 

the meeting to ensure the availability of 

this service. Individuals or 

organizations requesting this service 

will be responsible for telephone line 

charges and for providing the 

equipment and facilities that they use to 

establish the video teleconferencing 

link. The availability of video 

teleconferencing services is not 

guaranteed. 

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 16th day 

of January 2018. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Russell E. Chazell, 

Advisory Committee Management Officer. 

[FR Doc. 2018–00933 Filed 1–18–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

OVERSEAS PRIVATE INVESTMENT 

CORPORATION 

Sunshine Act: OPIC Annual Public 

Hearing 

TIME AND DATE: 10:00 a.m., Thursday, 

March 8, 2018. 

PLACE: Offices of the Corporation, 

Twelfth Floor Board Room, 1100 New 

York Avenue NW, Washington, DC. 

STATUS: Hearing OPEN to the Public at 

10 a.m. 

PURPOSE: Annual Public Hearing to 

afford an opportunity for any person to 

present views regarding the activities of 

the Corporation. 

PROCEDURES: Individuals wishing to 

address the hearing orally must provide 

advance notice to OPIC’s Corporate 

Secretary no later than 5 p.m. Thursday, 

February 22, 2018. The notice must 

include the individual’s name, title, 

organization, address, email, telephone 

number, and a concise summary of the 

subject matter to be presented. 

Oral presentations may not exceed ten 

(10) minutes. The time for individual 

presentations may be reduced 

proportionately, if necessary, to afford 

all participants who have submitted a 

timely request an opportunity to be 

heard. 

Participants wishing to submit a 

written statement for the record must 

submit a copy of such statement to 

OPIC’s Corporate Secretary no later than 

5 p.m. Thursday, February 22, 2018. 

Such statement must be typewritten, 

double-spaced, and may not exceed 

twenty-five (25) pages. 

Upon receipt of the required notice, 

OPIC will prepare an agenda for the 

hearing identifying speakers, setting 

forth the subject on which each 

participant will speak, and the time 

allotted for each presentation. The 

agenda will be available at the hearing. 

A written summary of the hearing will 

be compiled, and such summary will be 

made available, upon written request to 

OPIC’s Corporate Secretary, at the cost 

of reproduction. 

CONTACT PERSON FOR INFORMATION: 

Information on the hearing may be 

obtained from Catherine F.I. Andrade at 

(202) 336–8768, or via email at 

catherine.andrade@opic.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: OPIC is a 

U.S. Government agency that provides, 

on a commercial basis, political risk 

insurance and financing in friendly 

developing countries and emerging 

democracies for environmentally sound 

projects that confer positive 

developmental benefits upon the project 

country while creating employment in 

the U.S. OPIC is required by section 

231A(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 

1961, as amended (the ‘‘Act’’) to hold at 

least one public hearing each year. 

Dated: January 17, 2018. 

Catherine F.I. Andrade, 

OPIC Corporate Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2018–01006 Filed 1–17–18; 11:15 am] 

BILLING CODE 3210–01–P 

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE 

COMMISSION 

[Release No. 34–82498; File No. SR– 

NYSEAMER–2017–26] 

Self-Regulatory Organizations; NYSE 

American LLC; Order Approving a 

Proposed Rule Change To Amend Rule 

971.1NY To Amend the Duration of a 

Customer Best Execution Auction 

January 12, 2018. 

I. Introduction 

On November 17, 2017, NYSE 

American LLC (‘‘Exchange’’ or ‘‘NYSE 

American’’) filed with the Securities 

and Exchange Commission 

(‘‘Commission’’) pursuant to Section 

19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act 

of 1934 (‘‘Act’’) 1 and Rule 19b–4 

thereunder,2 a proposed rule change to 

amend Rule 971.1NY (Electronic Cross 

Transactions) to modify the parameters 

for the duration of a Customer Best 

Execution (‘‘CUBE’’) Auction. The 

proposed rule change was published for 

comment in the Federal Register on 

December 4, 2017.3 The Commission 

received no comment letters on the 

proposed rule change. This order 

approves the proposed rule change. 

II. Description of the Proposed Rule 

Change 

CUBE is a process by which an ATP 

Holder may electronically submit for 

execution an order it represents as agent 

(‘‘CUBE Order’’) against principal 

interest or against any other order it 

represents as agent.4 When the 

Exchange receives a valid CUBE Order 

for auction processing, a Request for 

Responses (‘‘RFR’’) detailing the series, 

the side of the market, the size of the 

CUBE Order, and the limit price of the 

CUBE Order is sent to all ATP Holders 

that subscribe to receive RFR messages. 

Currently, the amount of time given to 

ATP Holders to respond with competing 

interest to trade against the CUBE Order 

(‘‘Response Time Interval’’) is randomly 

set by the CUBE mechanism for each 

auction but cannot be shorter than 500 

milliseconds or longer than 750 

milliseconds, unless the auction is 

concluded early.5 The Exchange 

proposes to revise the Response Time 

Interval to provide that the duration of 

a CUBE Auction shall be a random 

period of time within parameters 


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2824 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 13 / Friday, January 19, 2018 / Notices 

6The Exchange states that its proposal is 

consistent with exposure periods permitted in 

similar mechanisms on other options exchanges. 

See Notice, supra note 3, at 57323 n.5. 

7See id. at 57323. 

8See id. at 57324. 

9See id. at 57323. 

10See id. 

11See id. 

12See id. 

13 In approving this proposed rule change, the 

Commission has considered the proposed rule’s 

impact on efficiency, competition, and capital 

formation. See 15 U.S.C. 78c(f). 

14 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(5). 

15 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(8). 

16See Securities Exchange Act Release Nos. 

76301 (October 29, 2015), 80 FR 68347 (November 

4, 2015) (SR–BX–2015–032) (establishing an 

exposure period for Nasdaq BX’s options price 

improvement mechanism (‘‘PRISM’’) of no less than 

100 milliseconds and no more than one second); 

77557 (April 7, 2016), 81 FR 21935 (April 13, 2016) 

(SR–Phlx–2016–40) (amending the exposure period 

for Nasdaq Phlx’s Price Improvement XL (‘‘PIXL’’) 

to be no less than 100 milliseconds and no more 

than one second); 79733 (January 4, 2017), 82 FR 

3055 (January 10, 2017) (SR–ISE–2016–26) 

(amending the exposure period for Nasdaq ISE’s 

Price Improvement Mechanism (‘‘PIM’’) to be no 

less than 100 milliseconds and no more than one 

second); 80738 (May 22, 2017), 82 FR 24417 (May 

26, 2017) (SR–CBOE–2017–029) (amending the 

exposure periods for CBOE’s Automated 

Improvement Mechanism (‘‘AIM’’) and Solicitation 

Auction Mechanism (‘‘SAM’’) to be no less than 100 

milliseconds and no more than one second); and 

80940 (June 15, 2017), 82 FR 28369 (June 21, 2017) 

(SR–MIAX–2017–16) (amending the exposure 

periods for MIAX’s Price Improvement Mechanism 

(‘‘PRIME’’) and PRIME Solicitation Mechanism to 

be no less than 100 milliseconds and no more than 

one second). See also the rules as codified at 

NASDAQ Phlx Rule 1080(n)(ii)(A)(4), NASDAQ BX 

Options Rules Chapter VI, Section 9(ii)(A)(3), 

Nasdaq ISE Rule 716, Supplementary Material .04, 

Nasdaq ISE Rule 723(c)(1), CBOE Rule 

6.74A(b)(1)(C), CBOE Rule 6.74B(b)(1)(C), MIAX 

Rule 515A(a)(2)(i)(C), and MIAX Rule 

515A(b)(2)(i)(C). 17See supra note 16. 18Currently, for example, the Response Time 

Interval for each individual auction is randomly set 

by the CUBE mechanism, but it is not possible for 

the mechanism to set a duration that is shorter than 

500 milliseconds or longer than 750 milliseconds. 

19See Exchange Rule 971.1NY(c)(2)(B). See also 

Securities Exchange Act Release No. 72025 (April 

25, 2014), 79 FR 24779, 24782, 24787 (May 1, 2017) 

(SR–NYSEMKT–2014–17) (order approving a 

proposed rule change to adopt the CUBE Auction). 

20 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(2). 

designated by the Exchange, which 

parameters shall be no less than 100 

milliseconds and no more than one 

second.6 The proposal would require 

the Exchange to announce in advance, 

by Trader Update, any changes to the 

parameters.7

The Exchange states that the proposed 

rule change, among other things, would 

provide investors with more timely 

execution of their option orders while 

ensuring that there is an adequate 

exposure of orders in the CUBE 

mechanism; could provide more CUBE 

Orders an opportunity for price 

improvement by reducing market risk 

for ATP Holders that participate in 

CUBE Auctions; would give the 

Exchange flexibility in establishing the 

optimal duration of CUBE Auctions; and 

would encourage competition and 

thereby enhance the potential for price 

improvement.8

To substantiate that its members can 

receive, process, and communicate a 

response back to the Exchange within 

100 milliseconds (the shortest possible 

duration of the Response Time Interval), 

the Exchange states that it surveyed all 

ATP Holders that responded to a CUBE 

Auction broadcast in the three months 

prior to the filing of this proposed rule 

change.9 According to the Exchange, 

each ATP Holder it surveyed indicated 

that it can receive, process, and 

communicate a response back to the 

Exchange within 100 milliseconds.10

The Exchange further states that it has 

analyzed its capacity and represents that 

it has the necessary systems capacity to 

handle the potential additional traffic 

associated with the additional 

transactions that may occur with the 

implementation of the proposed 

reduction of the Response Time Interval 

to no less than 100 milliseconds.11 The 

Exchange further represents that its 

system will be able to sufficiently 

maintain an audit trail for order and 

trade information with the reduction in 

the Response Time Interval.12

III. Discussion and Commission’s 

Findings 

After careful review, the Commission 

finds that the proposed rule change is 

consistent with the requirements of the 

Act and the rules and regulations 

thereunder applicable to a national 

securities exchange.13 In particular, the 

Commission finds that the proposed 

rule change is consistent with Section 

6(b)(5) of the Act,14 which requires, 

among other things, that the rules of a 

national securities exchange be 

designed to promote just and equitable 

principles of trade, to foster cooperation 

and coordination with persons engaged 

in regulating transactions in securities, 

to remove impediments to and perfect 

the mechanism of a free and open 

market and a national market system 

and, in general, to protect investors and 

the public interest, and not be designed 

to permit unfair discrimination between 

customers, issuers, brokers, or dealers. 

The Commission also finds that the 

proposed rule change is consistent with 

Section 6(b)(8) of the Act,15 which 

requires that the rules of an exchange 

not impose any burden on competition 

that is not necessary or appropriate in 

furtherance of the purposes of the Act. 

The Commission believes that, as 

NYSE American maintains, permitting 

the Exchange to designate an exposure 

time period of as short as100 

milliseconds in the CUBE Auction is 

consistent with the Commission’s past 

approval of rules of options exchanges 

that govern the duration of their 

electronic auctions. These rules provide 

for a period of as short as 100 

milliseconds for market participants to 

submit responses to an auction 

announcement before the auction 

ends.16 Similarly, the Commission has 

approved rules allowing options 

exchanges to set an exposure period of 

up to one second.17

The Commission notes that the fact 

that, in CUBE, a Response Time Interval 

is separately and randomly set by the 

auction mechanism for each individual 

auction (provided that no auction can be 

longer or shorter than specified limits) 

is not unique with respect to the instant 

proposal.18 The feature of CUBE that 

randomly sets a Response Time Interval 

for each auction—which is unique in 

contrast to electronic auction 

mechanisms at other options 

exchanges—has been a component of 

CUBE since approval of the Exchange’s 

Rule governing the CUBE 19 and is 

consistent with the mechanism’s current 

functionality. 

The Exchange’s proposal revises how 

the minimum and maximum time 

lengths for the randomly-set Response 

Time Interval for each CUBE Auction 

would be established. Currently, 

Exchange Rule 971.1NY sets the 

minimum and maximum: no less than 

500 milliseconds and no more than 750 

milliseconds. Under the proposal, the 

Exchange is granted the discretion to 

establish the minimum and maximum 

possible durations of an auction and 

change them from time to time (with 

adequate notice to market participants). 

However, that discretion itself is 

restricted under the proposal. The 

Exchange would not be permitted to 

establish the limits in a way that would 

allow even a randomly-set Response 

Time Interval to be shorter than 100 

milliseconds or longer than one second. 

The Commission thus notes that, under 

the proposed parameters, the exposure 

period for an order submitted to a CUBE 

Auction could never be shorter than the 

exposure period of any other options 

exchange’s electronic auction. 

Accordingly, for the reasons 

discussed above, the Commission 

believes that the Exchange’s proposal is 

consistent with the Act. 

IV. Conclusion 

It is therefore ordered, pursuant to 

Section 19(b)(2) of the Act,20 that the 


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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 13 / Friday, January 19, 2018 / Notices 2825 

21 17 CFR 200.30–3(a)(12). 

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

2 17 CFR 240.19b–4. 

3Unless specified otherwise, capitalized terms 

shall have the meaning OCC ascribes in its By-Laws 

and Rules. 

4Exchange Act Release No. 82156 (Nov. 27, 

2017), 82 FR 57015 (Dec. 1, 2017) (SR–OCC–2017– 

019) (‘‘Notice’’). 

5Two comment letters were submitted to the 

Commission expressing approval of the proposed 

rule change. See Letter from Rosa Beltran dated 

Nov. 28, 2017; Letter from Michael Kitlas dated 

Nov. 27, 2017. 

6See Exchange Act Release No. 81058 (June 30, 

2017), 82 FR 31371 (July 6, 2017) (SR–OCC–2017– 

803); Exchange Act Release No. 76641 (Dec. 14, 

2015), 80 FR 79114 (Dec. 18, 2015) (SR–OCC–2015– 

805). Both facilities allow OCC to obtain cash in 

exchange for Government securities 60 minutes 

after notice is given and collateral is posted. 7OCC represented that it performed an analysis 

of its stress liquidity demands based on a 1-in-70 

year hypothetical market event. Specifically, OCC 

started its analysis by selecting the largest historical 

peak monthly settlements that occurred over the 

historical look-back period of data generated by the 

stress test system. It then also selected certain large 

non-expiration days to supplement the analysis. 

From this it estimated the mark-to-market and cash 

settled exercise and assignment obligations for the 

members driving the historical peak demand under 

the proposed stress tests scenario to determine the 

stressed peak demand. 

proposed rule change (SR–NYSEAMER– 

2017–26) be, and hereby is, approved. 

For the Commission, by the Division of 

Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated 

authority.21

Eduardo A. Aleman, 

Assistant Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2018–00855 Filed 1–18–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 8011–01–P 

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE 

COMMISSION 

[Release No. 34–82502; File No. SR–OCC– 

2017–019] 

Self-Regulatory Organizations; The 

Options Clearing Corporation; Order 

Approving Proposed Rule Change, as 

Modified by Amendment No. 1, 

Concerning The Options Clearing 

Corporation’s Adoption of a New 

Minimum Cash Requirement for the 

Clearing Fund 

January 12, 2018 

I. Introduction 

The Options Clearing Corporation 

(‘‘OCC’’), on November 14, 2017, filed 

with the Securities and Exchange 

Commission (‘‘Commission’’), pursuant 

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

Exchange Act of 1934 (‘‘Exchange 

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

proposed rule change (SR–OCC–2017– 

019) to propose a new minimum cash 

contribution requirement for its Clearing 

Fund 3 (‘‘Cash Clearing Fund 

Requirement’’) and also provide for the 

pass-through interest income earned on 

such deposits to its Clearing Members. 

On November 22, 2017, OCC filed 

Amendment No. 1 to the proposed rule 

change, which made clarifications 

regarding the calculation of the interest 

earned on deposits. The proposed rule 

change was published for comment in 

the Federal Register on December 1, 

2017.4 The Commission received two 

comments regarding the proposed 

change.5 For the reasons discussed 

below, the Commission is approving the 

proposed rule change. 

II. Description of the Proposed Rule 

Change 

OCC maintains a Clearing Fund, 

composed of contributions required to 

be made by all Clearing Members, to 

satisfy losses suffered by OCC under a 

number of circumstances, including the 

default or failure of a Clearing Member 

to meet any obligation for which OCC 

may be responsible in the exercise of its 

duties as a central counterparty. 

Presently, Article VIII, Section 3(a) of 

OCC’s By-Laws provides that Clearing 

Fund contributions shall be in the form 

of cash and Government securities, but 

neither OCC’s By-Laws nor Rules 

provides a minimum cash requirement 

for contributions to the Clearing Fund. 

Article VIII, Section 4(a) of OCC’s ByLaws allows for OCC to invest cash 

contributions to the Clearing Fund, 

partially or wholly, in OCC’s account in 

Government securities, and to the extent 

that such contributions are not so 

invested, they shall be deposited by 

OCC in a separate account or accounts 

for Clearing Fund contributions in 

approved custodians. Article VIII, 

Section 4(a) of OCC’s By-Laws, 

however, presently does not account for 

the treatment of interest earned on cash 

deposits held in OCC’s bank account at 

the Federal Reserve. 

A. Proposed Change To Establish the 

Cash Clearing Fund Requirement 

OCC proposed to establish a Cash 

Clearing Fund Requirement for its 

Clearing Fund to increase the amount of 

qualifying liquid resources available to 

OCC to account for the event there is an 

extreme scenario in the financial 

markets and OCC has to address any 

resultant liquidity demands. Further, 

the proposal sought to ensure that OCC 

holds, and maintains access to, a more 

consistent level of cash clearing fund 

resources in its available prefunded 

financial resources. Specifically, the 

proposed rule change would require 

that Clearing Members collectively 

contribute $3 billion in cash to the 

Clearing Fund. Each Clearing Member’s 

proportionate share of the Cash Clearing 

Fund Requirement shall be determined 

by the current Clearing Fund allocation 

methodology in OCC Rule 1001. 

OCC’s current liquidity resources are 

sized to cover historically observed 

liquidity demands and potential 

demands based on forecasts with a 12 

month time horizon. The sizing 

calculations, in turn, are based on the 

potential exposure resulting from the 

default of a single clearing member. 

Further, the current clearing fund is 

sized, at a minimum, to ensure that OCC 

maintains sufficient collateral to access 

its committed liquidity facilities. OCC 

represented that it maintains committed 

liquidity facilities of $3 billion to cover 

its calculated historical and forecasted 

demands.6

After analyzing its liquidity demands 

in extreme stress scenarios,7 OCC 

determined that it would propose the $3 

billion Cash Clearing Fund Requirement 

to increase the amount and reliability of 

its liquid resources. OCC represented 

that, based upon its analysis, the peak 

stressed liquidity demands of the largest 

or two largest Clearing Members, which 

normally occur in conjunction with 

certain monthly expirations, could 

exceed the capacity of OCC’s current 

committed liquidity facilities. Although 

OCC believes that it would be able to 

cover the resulting shortfall with cash 

already present in the Clearing Fund, 

OCC stated that it could not rely on 

such cash always being available 

because, under OCC’s current By-Laws 

and Rules, there is no ability for OCC to 

ensure that a minimum amount of cash 

is maintained in the Clearing Fund at all 

times. As a result, OCC believes that the 

proposed $3 billion Cash Clearing Fund 

Requirement, combined with OCC’s $3 

billion of committed liquidity facilities, 

would provide liquid resources 

sufficient to cover the peak stressed 

liquidity demands of the largest one or 

two Clearing Members observed in the 

analysis. 

B. Proposed Change To Allow 

Temporary Increase of Cash Clearing 

Fund Requirement 

The proposed change would also 

provide authority for OCC to 

temporarily increase the amount of the 

Cash Clearing Fund Requirement. OCC’s 

Executive Chairman, Chief 

Administrative Officer (‘‘CAO’’), or 

Chief Operating Officer (‘‘COO’’), would 

have the authority, upon providing 

notice to the Risk Committee, to 

temporarily raise the Cash Clearing 

Fund Requirement up to an amount that 

includes the size of the Clearing Fund 


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