Document ID: SEC-2015-1140-0001
Agency: sec
Document Type: Notice
Title: Self-Regulatory Organizations; Proposed Rule Changes: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc.
Posted Date: 2015-07-10T04:00Z

[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 132 (Friday, July 10, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39811-39815]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-16860]

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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-75365; File No. SR-FINRA-2015-023]

Self-Regulatory Organizations; Financial Industry Regulatory 
Authority, Inc.; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a 
Proposed Rule Change Relating to Rule 4553 and Fees for Access to 
Alternative Trading System Volume Information Published on FINRA's Web 
Site

July 6, 2015.
    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 June 29, 2015, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. 
(``FINRA'') filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (``SEC'' 
or ``Commission'') the proposed rule change as described in Items I, 
II, and III below, which Items have been prepared by FINRA. FINRA has 
designated the proposed rule change as ``establishing or changing a 
due, fee or other charge'' under Section 19(b)(3)(A)(ii) of the Act\3\ 
and Rule 19b-4(f)(2) thereunder,\4\ which renders the proposal 
effective upon receipt of this filing by the Commission. The Commission 
is publishing this notice to solicit comments on the proposed rule 
change from interested persons.
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    \1\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(1).
    \2\ 17 CFR 240.19b-4.
    \3\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(A)(ii).
    \4\ 17 CFR 240.19b-4(f)(2).
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I. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Terms of the 
Substance of the Proposed Rule Change

    FINRA is proposing to remove Rule 4553 (Fees for ATS Data) from the 
FINRA rulebook.
    Below is the text of the proposed rule change. Proposed new 
language is in italics; proposed deletions are in brackets.
* * * * *

4000. FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONAL RULES

* * * * *

4500. BOOKS, RECORDS AND REPORTS

* * * * *

4550. ATS Reporting

* * * * *

[4553. Fees for ATS Data]

[(a) General]

    [Fees are charged for ATS Data as set forth in this Rule. 
Professionals and Vendors must pay the subscription fee to receive 
ATS Data in accordance with this Rule and execute appropriate 
agreements with FINRA.]

[(b) Professionals]

    [(1) Professionals may subscribe for the most currently 
published ATS Data and up to five years of historical ATS Data in a 
downloadable, pipe delimited format for a twelve-month subscription 
fee of $12,000. Such fee is not refundable or transferable.]
    [(2) Payment of the Professional subscription fee described in 
this paragraph (b) provides the Professional with use of such ATS 
Data to generate Derived Data.]
    [(3) Professionals may distribute ATS Data or Derived Data to 
their employees, affiliates, or employees of affiliates but are 
prohibited from providing ATS Data or Derived Data to any third 
party.]

[(c) Vendors]

    [(1) Vendors may subscribe for access to the most currently 
published ATS Data and up to five years of historical ATS Data in a 
downloadable, pipe delimited format for a twelve-month subscription 
fee of $18,000. Such fee is not refundable or transferable.]
    [(2) Payment of the Vendor subscription fee described in this 
paragraph (c) provides the Vendor with use of such ATS Data to 
generate Derived Data.]
    [(3) Vendors are prohibited from providing ATS Data to any third 
party unless a Professional subscription has been purchased

[[Page 39812]]

for each such third party in accordance with paragraph (b) above.]

[(d) Non-Professionals]

    [(1) There shall be no charge paid by a Non-Professional for 
access to the most recently published four weeks of ATS Data; 
however, such ATS Data will not be available in a downloadable 
format.]
    [(2) A Non-Professional must agree to terms of use before 
accessing the ATS Data, including that he or she receives and uses 
the ATS Data solely for his or her personal, non-commercial use and 
will not otherwise distribute the ATS Data or Derived Data to other 
parties. The terms of use for Non-Professionals will be clearly 
posted on the FINRA.org Web site, and access to the non-fee liable 
ATS Data content will require a user to acknowledge the terms of 
use.]

[(e) Definitions]

    [For purposes of this rule, the following terms have the meaning 
set forth:]
    [(1) ``ATS Data'' means Trading Information published by FINRA 
on its Web site.]
    [(2) ``Derived Data'' means data that is derived from ATS Data 
and that is not able to be (A) reverse engineered by a reasonably 
skilled user into ATS Data or (B) used as a surrogate for ATS Data.]
    [(3) ``Non-Professional'' means a natural person who uses the 
ATS Data solely for his or her personal, non-commercial use. A 
``Non-Professional'' is not:]
    [(A) registered nor qualified in any capacity with the SEC, the 
Commodity Futures Trading Commission, any state securities agency, 
any securities exchange or association, or any commodities or 
futures contract market or association, nor an employee of the above 
and, with respect to any person identified in this subparagraph (A), 
uses ATS Data for other than personal, non-commercial use;]
    [(B) engaged as an ``investment adviser'' as that term is 
defined in Section 202(a)(11) of the Investment Advisers Act 
(whether or not registered or qualified under that Act), nor an 
employee of the above and, with respect to any person identified in 
this subparagraph (B), uses ATS Data for other than personal, non-
commercial use;]
    [(C) employed by a bank, insurance company or other organization 
exempt from registration under federal or state securities laws to 
perform functions that would require registration or qualification 
if such functions were performed for an organization not so exempt, 
nor any other employee of a bank, insurance company or such other 
organization referenced above and, with respect to any person 
identified in this subparagraph (C), uses ATS Data for other than 
personal, non-commercial use; nor]
    [(D) engaged in, nor has the intention to engage in, any 
commercial redistribution of all or any portion of the ATS Data or 
Derived Data.]
    [(4) ``Professional'' means any non-natural person or any 
natural person that does not meet the definition of ``Non-
Professional'' in subparagraph (3).]
    [(5) ``Trading Information'' has the same meaning as set forth 
in Rule 4552.]
    [(6) ``Vendor'' means a Professional who distributes ATS Data or 
Derived Data to any third party.]
* * * * *

II. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Purpose of, and 
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change

    In its filing with the Commission, FINRA 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. FINRA 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
    On January 17, 2014, the SEC approved a proposed rule change to (i) 
adopt Rule 4552 (Alternative Trading Systems--Trading Information for 
Securities Executed Within the Alternative Trading System) to require 
alternative trading systems (``ATSs'') \5\ to report to FINRA weekly 
volume information and number of trades regarding securities 
transactions within the ATS (``ATS Data'') and to publish the ATS Data 
on a delayed basis on FINRA's Web site; \6\ and (ii) amend FINRA Rules 
6160, 6170, 6480, and 6720 to require each ATS to acquire and use a 
single, unique market participant identifier (``MPID'') when reporting 
information to FINRA (``MPID Requirement'').\7\ The implementation date 
for the reporting requirements under Rule 4552 was May 12, 2014, and 
FINRA began publishing the ATS Data for equity securities on its Web 
site on June 2, 2014.\8\ On May 29, 2014, the SEC approved Rule 4553, 
which established a fee schedule for access to the ATS Data.\9\ The 
proposed rule change deletes Rule 4553.
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    \5\ Regulation ATS defines an ``alternative trading system'' as 
``any organization, association, person, group of persons, or 
system: (1) That constitutes, maintains, or provides a market place 
or facilities for bringing together purchasers and sellers of 
securities or for otherwise performing with respect to securities 
the functions commonly performed by a stock exchange within the 
meaning of [Exchange Act Rule 3b-16]; and (2) That does not: (i) Set 
rules governing the conduct of subscribers other than the conduct of 
such subscribers' trading on such organization, association, person, 
group of persons, or system; or (ii) Discipline subscribers other 
than by exclusion from trading.'' 17 CFR 242.300(a). Rule 4552 
applies to any alternative trading system, as that term is defined 
in Regulation ATS, that has filed a Form ATS with the Commission. 
See Rule 4552(a).
    \6\ FINRA subsequently filed a proposed rule change to limit the 
reporting requirements in Rule 4552 to equity securities and exclude 
TRACE-Reportable Securities. See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 
71911 (April 9, 2014), 79 FR 21316 (April 15, 2014) (Notice of 
Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of File No. SR-FINRA-2014-017).
    \7\ See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 71341 (January 17, 
2014), 79 FR 4213 (January 24, 2014) (Order Approving File No. SR-
FINRA-2013-042). The MPID Requirement was subsequently amended to 
permit the use of two MPIDs by a single ATS provided each MPID is 
used only to report to either the Trade Reporting and Compliance 
Engine (``TRACE'') or one or more of FINRA's equity reporting 
facilities. See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 71911 (April 9, 
2014), 79 FR 21316 (April 15, 2014) (Notice of Filing and Immediate 
Effectiveness of File No. SR-FINRA-2014-017).
    \8\ The MPID Requirement was implemented on February 2, 2015. 
See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 73340 (October 10, 2014), 79 
FR 62500 (October 17, 2014) (Notice of Filing and Immediate 
Effectiveness of File No. SR-FINRA-2014-042).
    \9\ See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 72280 (May 29, 
2014), 79 FR 32351 (June 4, 2014) (Order Approving File No. SR-
FINRA-2014-018) (``ATS Fee Approval Order'').
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    Under Rule 4552, individual ATSs are required to submit weekly 
reports to FINRA regarding equity security volume information within 
the ATS, including share volume and number of trades for both NMS 
stocks and OTC equity securities.\10\ The first reports pursuant to 
Rule 4552 were due to FINRA by May 28, 2014, covering the week of May 
12-16, 2014.\11\ After FINRA began receiving the self-reported data 
from ATSs, FINRA began publishing on its Web site, on a delayed basis, 
the reported information for each equity security for each ATS with 
appropriate disclosures that the published volume numbers are based on 
ATS-submitted reports and not on reports produced or validated by 
FINRA.\12\ FINRA currently makes available on its Web site the ATS Data 
through weekly reports listing aggregate volume and number of trades by 
security for each ATS within the designated time period.
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    \10\ See Rule 4552(a), (d)(4).
    \11\ See Regulatory Notice 14-07 (February 2014).
    \12\ See Rule 4552(b).
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    Rule 4553 establishes three categories of users of the ATS Data, 
each of which is entitled to different levels and use of data and is 
subject to a different fee structure: (i) Non-Professionals; (ii) 
Professionals; and (iii) Vendors.\13\ Under Rule 4553, the most 
recently published four weeks of ATS Data is accessible to Non-
Professionals \14\ at no

[[Page 39813]]

cost on FINRA's Web site, and FINRA provides a basic web display 
listing all reporting ATSs and aggregate volume and number of trades 
for each symbol in which a trade was reported by the ATS during the 
designated time period.\15\ Non-Professionals may access, at no cost, 
the most recent four weeks of ATS Data in a viewable, but not 
downloadable, format. A Non-Professional must certify that he or she is 
a ``Non-Professional'' within the meaning of Rule 4553 and agree to 
certain terms of use of the ATS Data, including representations that he 
or she receives and uses the ATS Data solely for his or her personal, 
non-commercial use, and conditions regarding use of the data and 
prohibiting redistribution of the data.
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    \13\ Any individual seeking access to the ATS Data on FINRA's 
Web site must confirm that he or she is either (i) a Non-
Professional or (ii) a Professional (or an affiliate or employee 
thereof) that has a current Professional or Vendor subscription.
    \14\ A ``Non-Professional'' is generally a natural person who 
uses the ATS Data solely for his or her personal, non-commercial use 
and is not: (i) Registered or qualified in any capacity with the 
SEC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, any state securities 
agency, any securities exchange or association, or any commodities 
or futures contract market or association, nor an employee of the 
above; (ii) engaged as an ``investment adviser'' as that term is 
defined in Section 202(a)(11) of the Investment Advisers Act 
(whether or not registered or qualified under that Act), nor an 
employee of the above; (iii) employed by a bank, insurance company 
or other organization exempt from registration under federal or 
state securities laws to perform functions that would require 
registration or qualification if such functions were performed for 
an organization not so exempt, nor any other employee of a bank, 
insurance company or such other organization referenced above; or 
(iv) engaged in, or has the intention to engage in, any commercial 
redistribution of all or any portion of the ATS Data or Derived 
Data. See Rule 4552(e)(3); see also 15 U.S.C. 80b-2(a)(11). Rule 
4553(e)(2) defines ``Derived Data'' as data that is derived from ATS 
Data and that is not able to be (A) reverse engineered by a 
reasonably skilled user into ATS Data or (B) used as a surrogate for 
ATS Data. Generally, non-commercial requests from regulators, 
academics, and ad hoc requests from media reporters are considered 
non-professional usage under this definition.
    \15\ See Rule 4553(d). FINRA also currently produces quarterly 
reports summarizing the ATS Data that are publicly available for no 
charge on FINRA's Web site.
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    Under Rule 4553, Professionals are required to pay an annual, 
enterprise-wide subscription fee of $12,000 that is non-transferable 
and renewable annually to access the ATS Data.\16\ A Professional who 
has paid the subscription fee has access to the same ATS Data available 
to Non-Professionals. However, a Professional subscription allows a 
user access to the 27 most current weeks of published reports (Non-
Professionals are limited to four weeks) as well as access to 
historical ATS Data in a downloadable format.\17\ The Professional 
subscription allows an unlimited number of users within the firm to 
access the ATS Data.\18\ Thus, regardless of the size of the entity in 
question, the subscription fee for the entity is $12,000 for a twelve-
month subscription. Professionals are not permitted to redistribute ATS 
Data or Derived Data outside of the enterprise (e.g., to their 
customers); however, Professionals are permitted to distribute ATS Data 
and Derived Data within the enterprise (including the firm, any 
affiliates of the firm, and employees thereof). Professionals are 
required to agree to the terms of FINRA's ATS Data Subscriber 
Agreement, which establishes the terms and conditions of access to the 
ATS Data.
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    \16\ See Rule 4553(b). A ``Professional'' is defined as ``any 
non-natural person or any natural person that does not meet the 
definition of `Non-Professional.' '' Rule 4553(e)(4).
    \17\ The downloadable reports provide the same data as the web-
based reports but in pipe delimited format.
    \18\ If the Professional is a FINRA member, the member has 
access to the ATS Data so that all of the member's entitled users 
can access the ATS Data under the member's Central Registration 
Depository number. Professionals that are not FINRA members are 
provided with a single log-on that may be shared within the entity 
and its affiliates and employees, but may not be used outside of the 
entity, its affiliates, and their employees.
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    Rule 4553 also includes a Vendor subscription fee of $18,000 per 
year.\19\ A Vendor subscription permits a Vendor to redistribute the 
ATS Data or Derived Data within and outside the enterprise; however, a 
Vendor may provide this data to a third party only if a yearly, non-
transferable, enterprise-wide Professional subscription has been 
purchased for each such third party. Vendors must track specific users 
and their entitlements (and annual commitment term) and are subject to 
regular audits to ensure accurate and timely compliance with re-
dissemination reporting and payment. Vendors are responsible for 
reporting entity usage as a result of their redistribution of the data.
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    \19\ See Rule 4553(c). A ``Vendor'' is defined as ``a 
Professional who distributes ATS Data or Derived Data to any third 
party.'' Rule 4553(e)(6).
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    FINRA established the fee rates for access to ATS Data by 
Professionals and Vendors to recover the costs associated with 
collecting, formatting, and disseminating the data.\20\ FINRA noted, 
when proposing the fee, that it did not have an exact estimate as to 
how many subscribers will ultimately pay to access ATS Data and stated 
that FINRA intended to reassess the fairness and reasonableness of the 
fee once it had experience with the actual usage and ultimate fees paid 
to access ATS Data.\21\
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    \20\ See ATS Fee Approval Order, supra note 9, 79 FR 32351, 
32353.
    \21\ See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 71919 (April 9, 
2014), 79 FR 21324, 21327 (April 15, 2014) (Notice of Filing File 
No. SR-FINRA-2014-018).
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    After approximately one year of receiving and disseminating the ATS 
Data on FINRA's Web site, FINRA has reviewed the usage of the ATS Data 
and the costs incurred and is proposing to eliminate the fee for all 
potential users and disseminate the ATS Data on its Web site at no 
charge. FINRA has found that there are significantly fewer firms and 
data vendors accessing the ATS Data than anticipated, which limits the 
opportunities for broader dissemination and analysis of the data FINRA 
makes available. By making the ATS Data available at no cost, FINRA 
believes more data vendors and firms will access the ATS Data and 
provide useful statistics and analysis to the industry and to 
individual investors and the public. FINRA currently anticipates making 
publicly available on its Web site 27 weeks of online reports and up to 
five years of historical reports available in a downloadable 
format.\22\
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    \22\ There are no reports for time periods before the 
implementation of Rule 4552.
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    As FINRA noted when it proposed collecting and disseminating the 
ATS Data, Rule 4552 was intended in part to increase transparency in 
the over-the-counter market. Although Rule 4552 has no doubt achieved 
this goal, particularly by providing individual investors with access 
to the ATS Data at no cost, FINRA believes that transparency may be 
even further enhanced by eliminating the fee for Professionals and 
Vendors so that individual investors and the public can benefit from 
more detailed and widely-available analysis of the ATS Data. 
Consequently, FINRA is proposing to eliminate the fee for Professionals 
and Vendors and make the ATS Data publicly available at no cost.
    FINRA has filed the proposed rule change for immediate 
effectiveness. The implementation date will be July 13, 2015. FINRA 
staff is currently working on changes to FINRA's Web site to enable all 
users to access the ATS Data and to remove functionality that currently 
limits access to the ATS Data to either Non-Professionals or those with 
paid subscriptions. FINRA anticipates that these changes will be made 
so that the ATS Data will be publicly available beginning July 13, 
2015. Until that time, the ATS Data will continue to be available only 
to paid subscribers or, in more limited formats, to Non-Professionals 
consistent with Rule 4553.\23\
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    \23\ Because the subscriptions purchased pursuant to Rule 4553 
are on an annual basis, some subscribers' annual subscriptions will 
lapse before July 13, 2015. Those subscribers that choose to renew 
their annual subscription for the amount required under Rule 4553 
before July 13, 2015, will receive a pro rata refund as of July 13, 
2015. Current subscribers that have an annual subscription that 
expires after July 13, 2015, will also receive a pro rata refund. 
Thus, for example, if a firm purchased an annual Professional 
subscription for $12,000 on August 13, 2014, the firm will receive a 
$1,000 refund for the period between July 13, 2015, and August 13, 
2015.

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[[Page 39814]]

2. Statutory Basis
    FINRA believes that the proposed rule change is consistent with the 
provisions of Section 15A(b)(6) of the Act,\24\ which requires, among 
other things, that FINRA rules must be designed to prevent fraudulent 
and manipulative acts and practices, to promote just and equitable 
principles of trade, and, in general, to protect investors and the 
public interest and Section 15A(b)(5) of the Act,\25\ which requires, 
among other things, that FINRA rules provide for the equitable 
allocation of reasonable dues, fees and other charges among members and 
issuers and other persons using any facility or system that FINRA 
operates or controls.
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    \24\ 15 U.S.C. 78o-3(b)(6).
    \25\ 15 U.S.C. 78o-3(b)(5).
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    FINRA believes that, by eliminating the fees imposed by Rule 4553 
and making the ATS Data available to the public at no cost, more data 
vendors and firms will use the ATS Data to provide useful statistics 
and analysis to the industry, individual investors, and the public. 
This, in turn, will further improve transparency in the over-the-
counter market by making the ATS Data, and analysis of the data, more 
widely available not only for Professionals and Vendors, but also for 
individual investors who can benefit from more detailed analysis of the 
ATS Data.

B. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement on Burden on Competition

    FINRA does not believe that the proposed rule change will result in 
any burden on competition that is not necessary or appropriate in 
furtherance of the purposes of the Act. FINRA believes that eliminating 
the fee may, in fact, remove potential burdens by widening access to 
the ATS Data, particularly for smaller firms that may not have been 
able to pay the existing Professional or Vendor fees.
Economic Impact Analysis
    As described above, FINRA is proposing to remove Rule 4553 to 
eliminate the fee for all potential users of ATS Data and disseminate 
the ATS Data on its Web site at no charge. Currently, FINRA makes this 
data available on its Web site and charges according to the three tiers 
described above. In the presence of this proposed rule change, the ATS 
Data will continue to be made available, and FINRA will seek no fees 
for its usage. FINRA anticipates that the demand for the ATS Data will 
increase in the absence of professional and vendor fees.
    FINRA believes that eliminating the fee for Professionals and 
Vendors to access ATS Data will extend the impact of transparency in 
the over-the-counter market and will not result in any burden on FINRA 
members or the public. Yet, investors may benefit from an externality 
if the wider availability of the ATS Data leads to an increased 
production of relevant analysis by professionals.\26\ Also, FINRA 
believes--based on member firms' and vendors' feedback--that there is a 
wide range of market participants that will start using the ATS Data 
and benefit from it when it is made available free of charge.
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    \26\ For example, one study showed that brokers' order routing 
behavior, in search for best execution for their clients, changed 
after the increased transparency due to Rule 11Ac1-5, which requires 
market centers to publish standardized execution quality metrics. 
See Ekkehart Boehmer, Robert Jennings & Li Wei, Public Disclosure 
and Private Decisions: Equity Market Execution Quality and Order 
Routing, 20 (2) Rev. Fin. Stud. 315 (March 2007).
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    FINRA would incur no additional costs as a result of the proposed 
rule change, as FINRA already aggregates and publishes the ATS Data on 
a weekly basis; however, FINRA will forego the revenue that partially 
covers the cost of maintaining the ATS Data, although both the cost and 
revenue have been non-material since the data dissemination started in 
June 2014. FINRA's experience in the past year suggests that the 
marginal costs to provide this information to the public is de minimis, 
with no material impact to its budget or members.

C. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement on Comments on the Proposed 
Rule Change Received From Members, Participants, or Others

    Although written comments were not solicited regarding the 
elimination of Rule 4553, FINRA has received one comment letter since 
the adoption of Rule 4553 that addresses the current fee structure for 
access to ATS Data.\27\ The Securities Industry and Financial Markets 
Association (``SIFMA'') submitted a written comment letter in response 
to Regulatory Notice 14-48 \28\ that, among other things, noted that 
SIFMA ``continues to oppose FINRA charging a fee to access the [ATS] 
data and the fact that only a limited scope of information is available 
for free on the FINRA Web site.'' \29\ A copy of Regulatory Notice 14-
48 is attached as Exhibit 2a.\30\ A copy of SIFMA's comment letter 
received in response to the Regulatory Notice is attached as Exhibit 
2b.\31\ FINRA believes the elimination of Rule 4553 would address the 
concern raised by SIFMA in its comment letter.
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    \27\ FINRA notes that, although written comments were not 
solicited regarding the current proposed rule change to eliminate 
Rule 4553, comments addressing the adoption of a fee for access to 
ATS Data were received in response to the rule filings proposing 
Rules 4552 and 4553, and these commenters generally opposed the fee. 
See ATS Fee Approval Order, supra note 9, 79 FR 32351, 32352; see 
also Securities Exchange Act Release No. 71341 (January 17, 2014), 
79 FR 4213 (January 24, 2014) (Order Approving File No. SR-FINRA-
2013-042).
    \28\ In Regulatory Notice 14-48, FINRA requested comment on a 
proposal to expand the ATS transparency initiative to publish the 
remaining equity volume executed over the counter, including trading 
on non-ATS electronic trading systems and internalized trades. See 
Regulatory Notice 14-48 (November 2014).
    \29\ Letter from Theodore R. Lazo, Managing Director and 
Associate General Counsel, SIFMA to Marcia E. Asquith, Corporate 
Secretary, FINRA, dated February 20, 2015.
    \30\ The Commission notes that the Regulatory Circular is not 
attached to this notice, but is available on FINRA's Web site.
    \31\ The Commission notes that SIFMA's comment letter is not 
attached to this notice, but is available on FINRA's Web site, and 
on the Commission's Web site.
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III. Date of Effectiveness of the Proposed Rule Change and Timing for 
Commission Action

    The foregoing rule change has become effective pursuant to Section 
19(b)(3)(A) of the Act \32\ and paragraph (f)(2) of Rule 19b-4 
thereunder.\33\ At any time within 60 days of the filing of the 
proposed rule change, the Commission summarily may temporarily suspend 
such rule change if it appears to the Commission that such action is 
necessary or appropriate in the public interest, for the protection of 
investors, or otherwise in furtherance of the purposes of the Act. If 
the Commission takes such action, the Commission shall institute 
proceedings to determine whether the proposed rule should be approved 
or disapproved.
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    \32\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(A).
    \33\ 17 CFR 240.19b-4(f)(x). [sic]
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IV. Solicitation of Comments

    Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views, and 
arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed rule 
change is consistent with the Act. Comments may be submitted by any of 
the following methods:

Electronic Comments

     Use the Commission's Internet comment form (http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml); or
     Send an email to rule-comments@sec.gov. Please include 
File Number SR-FINRA-2015-023 on the subject line.

Paper Comments

     Send paper comments in triplicate to Secretary, Securities 
and Exchange

[[Page 39815]]

Commission, 100 F Street NE., Washington, DC 20549-1090.

All submissions should refer to File Number SR-FINRA-2015-023. This 
file number should be included on the subject line if email is used. To 
help the Commission process and review your comments more efficiently, 
please use only one method. The Commission will post all comments on 
the Commission's Internet Web site (http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml). Copies of the submission, all subsequent amendments, 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 that may be withheld from the public in accordance with the 
provisions of 5 U.S.C. 552, will be available for Web site viewing and 
printing in the Commission's Public Reference Room, 100 F Street NE., 
Washington, DC 20549 on official business days between the hours of 
10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Copies of such filing also will be available 
for inspection and copying at the principal offices of FINRA. All 
comments received will be posted without change; the Commission does 
not edit personal identifying information from submissions. You should 
submit only information that you wish to make available publicly. All 
submissions should refer to File Number SR-FINRA-2015-023, and should 
be submitted on or before July 31, 2015.

    For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, 
pursuant to delegated authority.\34\
Brent J. Fields,
Secretary.
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    \34\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(12).
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[FR Doc. 2015-16860 Filed 7-9-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 8011-01-P