Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request, 5384-5385 [E6-1310]
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Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 21 / Wednesday, February 1, 2006 / Notices
SUMMARY: Under the provision of the
Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C.
Chapter 35), agencies are required to
publish a Notice in the Federal Register
notifying the public, that the Agency is
preparing an information collection
request for OMB review, approval, and
request public review and comment on
the submission. Comments are being
solicited on the need for the
information, the accuracy of the
Agency’s burden estimate; the quality,
practical utility and clarity of the
information to be collected; and ways to
minimize the reporting burden,
including automated collection
techniques by use of other forms of
technology. The proposed form under
review is summarized below.
DATES: Comments must be received
within 60 calendar days of publication
of this Notice.
ADDRESSES: Copies of the subject form
and the request for review prepared for
submission to OMB may be obtained
from the Agency submitting officer.
Comments on the form should be
submitted to the Agency Submitting
Officer.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
OPIC Agency Submitting Officer: Essie
S. Bryant, Records Management Officer,
Overseas Private Investment
Corporation, 1100 New York Avenue,
NW., Washington, DC 20527; 202–336–
8563.
OMB Reviewer: David Rostker, Office
of Information and Regulator Affairs,
Office of Management and Budget, New
Executive Office Building, Docket
Library, Room 10102, 725 17th Street,
NW., Washington, DC 20503; (202) 395–
3897.
cchase on PROD1PC60 with NOTICES
Summary Form Under Review
Type of Request: Renewal/Revision.
Title: Expedited Screening
Questionnaire On-Lending
Transactions.
Form Number: OPIC–168.
Frequency of Use: Once per investor
per project.
Type of Respondents: Business or
other institution (except farms);
individuals.
Description of Affected Public: U.S.
companies or citizens investing
overseas.
Reporting Hours: 4.0 hours per
project.
Number of Responses: 300 per year.
Federal Cost: $17,000 per year.
Authority for Information Collection:
Sections 231, 234(a), 239(d), and 240A
of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961,
as amended.
Abstract (Needs and Uses): The
application is the principal document
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17:49 Jan 31, 2006
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used by OPIC to determine the
investor’s and the project’s eligibility for
debt financing, assess the environmental
impact and developmental effects of the
project, measure the economic effects
for the U.S. and the host country’s
economy, and collect information for
underwriting analysis.
Dated: January 24, 2006.
Eli Landy,
Senior Counsel for Administrative Law,
Department of Legal Affairs.
[FR Doc. 06–931 Filed 1–31–06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3210–01–M
POSTAL SERVICE
Sunshine Act Meeting; Board of
Governors
10:30 a.m., Tuesday,
February 7, 2006; 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m.,
Wednesday, February 8, 2006.
PLACE: Washington, DC, at U.S. Postal
Service Headquarters, 475 L’Enfant
Plaza, SW., in the Benjamin Franklin
Room.
STATUS: February 7—10:30 a.m.
(Closed); February 8—8:30 a.m. (Open);
February 8—10 a.m. (Closed).
MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED:
TIMES AND DATES:
Tuesday, February 7 at 10:30 a.m.
(Closed)
1. Strategic Planning.
2. Financial Update.
3. Rate Case Planning.
4. Labor Negotiations Planning.
5. Negotiated Service Agreement.
6. Capital Investment—Remote
Encoding System.
7. Personnel Matters and
Compensation Issues.
Wednesday, February 8 at 8:30 a.m.
(Open)
1. Minutes of the Previous Meeting,
January 10, 2006.
2. Remarks of the Postmaster General
and CEO Jack Potter.
3. Appointment of Members to Board
Committees and Committee Reports.
4. Capital Investment—Flats
Sequencing System and Delivery Point
Packager Research & Development
Modification.
5. Quarterly Report on Financial
Performance.
6. Tentative Agenda for the March 28,
2006, meeting in Washington, DC.
Wednesday, February 8 at 10 a.m.
(Closed) (If Needed)
1. Continuation of Tuesday’s closed
session agenda.
CONTACT PERSON FOR MORE INFORMATION:
William T. Johnstone, Secretary of the
PO 00000
Frm 00153
Fmt 4703
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Board, U.S. Postal Service, 475 L’Enfant
Plaza, SW., Washington, DC 20260–
1000. Telephone (202) 268–4800.
William T. Johnstone,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 06–995 Filed 1–30–06; 3:33 pm]
BILLING CODE 7710–12–M
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION
Submission for OMB Review;
Comment Request
Upon Written Request, Copies Available
From: Securities and Exchange
Commission, Office of Filings and
Information Services, Washington, DC
20549.
Extension: Rule 0–1; SEC File No. 270–472;
OMB Control No. 3235–0531.
Notice is hereby given that, pursuant
to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
(44 U.S.C. 350l et seq.), the Securities
and Exchange Commission
(‘‘Commission’’) has submitted to the
Office of Management and Budget
requests for extension of the previous
approved collections of information
discussed below.
The Investment Company Act of 1940
(the ‘‘Act’’) 1 establishes a
comprehensive framework for regulating
the organization and operation of
investment companies (‘‘funds’’). A
principal objective of the Act is to
protect fund investors by addressing the
conflicts of interest that exist between
funds and their investment advisers and
other affiliated persons. The Act places
significant responsibility on the fund
board of directors in overseeing the
operations of the fund and policing the
relevant conflicts of interest.2
In one of its first releases, the
Commission exercised its rulemaking
authority pursuant to sections 38(a) and
40(b) of the Act by adopting rule 0–1 [17
CFR 270.0–1].3 Rule 0–1, as
subsequently amended on numerous
occasions, provides definitions for the
terms used by the Commission in the
rules and regulations it has adopted
pursuant to the Act. The rule also
contains a number of rules of
construction for terms that are defined
either in the Act itself or elsewhere in
the Commission’s rules and regulations.
Finally, rule 0–1 defines terms that
serve as conditions to the availability of
1 15
U.S.C. 80a–1.
example, fund directors must approve
investment advisory and distribution contracts. See
15 U.S.C. 80a–15(a), (b), and (c).
3 Investment Company Act Release No. 4 (Oct. 29,
1940) [5 FR 4316 (Oct. 31, 1940)]. Note that rule 0–
1 was originally adopted as rule N–1.
2 For
E:\FR\FM\01FEN1.SGM
01FEN1
Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 21 / Wednesday, February 1, 2006 / Notices
cchase on PROD1PC60 with NOTICES
certain of the Commission’s exemptive
rules. More specifically, the term
‘‘independent legal counsel,’’ as defined
in rule 0–1, sets out conditions that
funds must meet in order to rely on any
of ten exemptive rules under the Act
(‘‘exemptive rules’’).4
The Commission amended rule 0–1 to
include the definition of the term
‘‘independent legal counsel’’ in 2001.5
This amendment was designed to
enhance the effectiveness of fund boards
of directors and to better enable
investors to assess the independence of
those directors. The Commission also
amended the exemptive rules to require
that any person who serves as legal
counsel to the independent directors of
any fund that relies on any of the
exemptive rules must be an
‘‘independent legal counsel.’’ This
requirement was added because
independent directors can better
perform the responsibilities assigned to
them under the Act and the rules if they
have the assistance of truly independent
legal counsel.
If the board’s counsel has represented
the fund’s investment adviser, principal
underwriter, administrator (collectively,
‘‘management organizations’’) or their
‘‘control persons’’ 6 during the past two
years, rule 0–1 requires that the board’s
independent directors make a
determination about the adequacy of the
counsel’s independence. A majority of
the board’s independent directors are
required to reasonably determine, in the
exercise of their judgment, that the
counsel’s prior or current representation
of the management organizations or
their control persons was sufficiently
limited to conclude that it is unlikely to
adversely affect the counsel’s
professional judgment and legal
representation. Rule 0–1 also requires
that a record for the basis of this
determination is made in the minutes of
the directors’ meeting. In addition, the
independent directors must have
obtained an undertaking from the
counsel to provide them with the
information necessary to make their
determination and to update promptly
that information when the person begins
4 The relevant exemptive rules are: Rule 10f–3
[17 CFR 270.10f–3], Rule 12b–1 [17 CFR 270.12b–
1], Rule 15a–4(b)(2) [17 CFR 270.15a–4(b)(2)], Rule
17a–7 [17 CFR 270.17a–7], Rule 17a–8 [17 CFR
270.17a–8], Rule 17d–1(d)(7) [17 CFR 270.17d–
1(d)(7)], Rule 17e–1(c) [17 CFR 270.17e–1(c)], Rule
17g–1 [17 CFR 270.17g–1], Rule 18f–3 [17 CFR
270.18f–3], and Rule 23c–3 [17 CFR 270.23c–3].
5 See Role of Independent Directors of Investment
Companies, Investment Company Act Release No.
24816 (Jan. 2, 2001) [66 FR 3735 (Jan. 16, 2001)].
6 A ‘‘control person’’ is any person—other than a
fund—directly or indirectly controlling, controlled
by, or under common control, with any of the
fund’s management organizations. See 17 CFR
270.01(a)(6)(iv)(B).
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17:49 Jan 31, 2006
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5385
to represent a management organization
or control person, or when he or she
materially increases his or her
representation. Generally, the
independent directors must re-evaluate
their determination no less frequently
than annually.
Any fund that relies on one of the
exemptive rules must comply with the
requirements in the definition of
‘‘independent legal counsel’’ under rule
0–1. We assume that approximately
3870 funds rely on at least one of the
exemptive rules annually.7 We further
assume that the independent directors
of approximately one-third (1290) of
those funds would need to make the
required determination in order for their
counsel to meet the definition of
independent legal counsel.8 We
estimate that each of these 1290 funds
would be required to spend, on average,
0.75 hours annually to comply with the
recordkeeping requirement associated
with this determination, for a total
annual burden of approximately 968
hours. Based on this estimate, the total
annual cost for all funds’ compliance
with this rule is approximately $66,126.
To calculate this total annual cost, the
Commission staff assumed that twothirds of the total annual hour burden
(645 hours) would be incurred by
compliance staff with an average hourly
wage rate of $89 per hour,9 and onethird of the annual hour burden (323
hours) would be incurred by clerical
staff with an average hourly wage rate
of $27 per hour.10
These burden hour estimates are
based upon the Commission staff’s
experience and discussions with the
fund industry. The estimates of average
burden hours are made solely for the
purposes of the Paperwork Reduction
Act. These estimates are not derived
from a comprehensive or even a
representative survey or study of the
costs of Commission rules.
Compliance with the collection of
information requirements of the rule is
mandatory and is necessary to comply
with the requirements of the rule in
general. 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
control number.
General comments regarding the
above information should be directed to
the following persons: (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 e-mail to:
David_Rostker@omb.eop.gov; and (ii) R.
Corey Booth, Director/Chief Information
Officer, Office of Information
Technology, Securities and Exchange
Commission, 100 F. Street, NE.,
Washington, DC 20549. Comments must
be submitted to OMB within 30 days of
this notice.
7 Based on statistics compiled by Commission
staff, we estimate that there are approximately 4300
funds that could rely on one or more of the
exemptive rules. Of those funds, we assume that
approximately 90 percent (3870) actually rely on at
least one exemptive rules annually.
8 We assume that the independent directors of the
remaining two-thirds of those funds will choose not
to have counsel, or will rely on counsel who has
not recently represented the fund’s management
organizations or control persons. In both
circumstances, it would not be necessary for the
fund’s independent directors to make a
determination about their counsel’s independence.
9 The staff estimates concerning the wage rate for
professional time and for clerical time are based on
salary information complied by the Securities
Industry Association. We use the annual salaries
listed for the Director of Compliance and Executive
Secretary positions to make our estimates. See
Securities Industry Association, Report on
Management and Professional Earnings in the
Securities Industry (2004) (available in part at
https://www.careerjournal.com/salaryhiring (last
visited Sept. 14, 2005)). Note that the average
hourly wage rate estimates are modified for an
1800-hour work-year, 2.7% inflation and adjusted
upward by 35% to reflect possible overhead costs
and employee benefits.
10 (645 × $89/hour) + (323 × $27/hour) =
($66,126).
Submission for OMB Review;
Comment Request
PO 00000
Frm 00154
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
Dated: January 25, 2006.
Nancy M. Morris,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. E6–1310 Filed 1–31–06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8010–01–P
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION
Upon Written Request, Copies Available
From: Securities and Exchange
Commission, Office of Filings and
Information Services, Washington, DC
20549.
Extension: Rule 3a–8; SEC File No. 270–
516; OMB Control No. 3235–0574.
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
(‘‘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 3a–8 of the Investment Company
Act of 1940 (the ‘‘Act’’), serves as a
nonexclusive safe harbor from
investment company status for certain
research and development companies
(‘‘R&D companies’’). The rule requires
E:\FR\FM\01FEN1.SGM
01FEN1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 1, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5384-5385]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-1310]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request
Upon Written Request, Copies Available From: Securities and Exchange
Commission, Office of Filings and Information Services, Washington, DC
20549.
Extension: Rule 0-1; SEC File No. 270-472; OMB Control No. 3235-
0531.
Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 350l et seq.), the Securities and Exchange
Commission (``Commission'') has submitted to the Office of Management
and Budget requests for extension of the previous approved collections
of information discussed below.
The Investment Company Act of 1940 (the ``Act'') \1\ establishes a
comprehensive framework for regulating the organization and operation
of investment companies (``funds''). A principal objective of the Act
is to protect fund investors by addressing the conflicts of interest
that exist between funds and their investment advisers and other
affiliated persons. The Act places significant responsibility on the
fund board of directors in overseeing the operations of the fund and
policing the relevant conflicts of interest.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ 15 U.S.C. 80a-1.
\2\ For example, fund directors must approve investment advisory
and distribution contracts. See 15 U.S.C. 80a-15(a), (b), and (c).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In one of its first releases, the Commission exercised its
rulemaking authority pursuant to sections 38(a) and 40(b) of the Act by
adopting rule 0-1 [17 CFR 270.0-1].\3\ Rule 0-1, as subsequently
amended on numerous occasions, provides definitions for the terms used
by the Commission in the rules and regulations it has adopted pursuant
to the Act. The rule also contains a number of rules of construction
for terms that are defined either in the Act itself or elsewhere in the
Commission's rules and regulations. Finally, rule 0-1 defines terms
that serve as conditions to the availability of
[[Page 5385]]
certain of the Commission's exemptive rules. More specifically, the
term ``independent legal counsel,'' as defined in rule 0-1, sets out
conditions that funds must meet in order to rely on any of ten
exemptive rules under the Act (``exemptive rules'').\4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ Investment Company Act Release No. 4 (Oct. 29, 1940) [5 FR
4316 (Oct. 31, 1940)]. Note that rule 0-1 was originally adopted as
rule N-1.
\4\ The relevant exemptive rules are: Rule 10f-3 [17 CFR
270.10f-3], Rule 12b-1 [17 CFR 270.12b-1], Rule 15a-4(b)(2) [17 CFR
270.15a-4(b)(2)], Rule 17a-7 [17 CFR 270.17a-7], Rule 17a-8 [17 CFR
270.17a-8], Rule 17d-1(d)(7) [17 CFR 270.17d-1(d)(7)], Rule 17e-1(c)
[17 CFR 270.17e-1(c)], Rule 17g-1 [17 CFR 270.17g-1], Rule 18f-3 [17
CFR 270.18f-3], and Rule 23c-3 [17 CFR 270.23c-3].
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Commission amended rule 0-1 to include the definition of the
term ``independent legal counsel'' in 2001.\5\ This amendment was
designed to enhance the effectiveness of fund boards of directors and
to better enable investors to assess the independence of those
directors. The Commission also amended the exemptive rules to require
that any person who serves as legal counsel to the independent
directors of any fund that relies on any of the exemptive rules must be
an ``independent legal counsel.'' This requirement was added because
independent directors can better perform the responsibilities assigned
to them under the Act and the rules if they have the assistance of
truly independent legal counsel.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ See Role of Independent Directors of Investment Companies,
Investment Company Act Release No. 24816 (Jan. 2, 2001) [66 FR 3735
(Jan. 16, 2001)].
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
If the board's counsel has represented the fund's investment
adviser, principal underwriter, administrator (collectively,
``management organizations'') or their ``control persons'' \6\ during
the past two years, rule 0-1 requires that the board's independent
directors make a determination about the adequacy of the counsel's
independence. A majority of the board's independent directors are
required to reasonably determine, in the exercise of their judgment,
that the counsel's prior or current representation of the management
organizations or their control persons was sufficiently limited to
conclude that it is unlikely to adversely affect the counsel's
professional judgment and legal representation. Rule 0-1 also requires
that a record for the basis of this determination is made in the
minutes of the directors' meeting. In addition, the independent
directors must have obtained an undertaking from the counsel to provide
them with the information necessary to make their determination and to
update promptly that information when the person begins to represent a
management organization or control person, or when he or she materially
increases his or her representation. Generally, the independent
directors must re-evaluate their determination no less frequently than
annually.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\6\ A ``control person'' is any person--other than a fund--
directly or indirectly controlling, controlled by, or under common
control, with any of the fund's management organizations. See 17 CFR
270.01(a)(6)(iv)(B).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Any fund that relies on one of the exemptive rules must comply with
the requirements in the definition of ``independent legal counsel''
under rule 0-1. We assume that approximately 3870 funds rely on at
least one of the exemptive rules annually.\7\ We further assume that
the independent directors of approximately one-third (1290) of those
funds would need to make the required determination in order for their
counsel to meet the definition of independent legal counsel.\8\ We
estimate that each of these 1290 funds would be required to spend, on
average, 0.75 hours annually to comply with the recordkeeping
requirement associated with this determination, for a total annual
burden of approximately 968 hours. Based on this estimate, the total
annual cost for all funds' compliance with this rule is approximately
$66,126. To calculate this total annual cost, the Commission staff
assumed that two-thirds of the total annual hour burden (645 hours)
would be incurred by compliance staff with an average hourly wage rate
of $89 per hour,\9\ and one-third of the annual hour burden (323 hours)
would be incurred by clerical staff with an average hourly wage rate of
$27 per hour.\10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ Based on statistics compiled by Commission staff, we
estimate that there are approximately 4300 funds that could rely on
one or more of the exemptive rules. Of those funds, we assume that
approximately 90 percent (3870) actually rely on at least one
exemptive rules annually.
\8\ We assume that the independent directors of the remaining
two-thirds of those funds will choose not to have counsel, or will
rely on counsel who has not recently represented the fund's
management organizations or control persons. In both circumstances,
it would not be necessary for the fund's independent directors to
make a determination about their counsel's independence.
\9\ The staff estimates concerning the wage rate for
professional time and for clerical time are based on salary
information complied by the Securities Industry Association. We use
the annual salaries listed for the Director of Compliance and
Executive Secretary positions to make our estimates. See Securities
Industry Association, Report on Management and Professional Earnings
in the Securities Industry (2004) (available in part at https://
www.careerjournal.com/salaryhiring (last visited Sept. 14, 2005)).
Note that the average hourly wage rate estimates are modified for an
1800-hour work-year, 2.7% inflation and adjusted upward by 35% to
reflect possible overhead costs and employee benefits.
\10\ (645 x $89/hour) + (323 x $27/hour) = ($66,126).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
These burden hour estimates are based upon the Commission staff's
experience and discussions with the fund industry. The estimates of
average burden hours are made solely for the purposes of the Paperwork
Reduction Act. These estimates are not derived from a comprehensive or
even a representative survey or study of the costs of Commission rules.
Compliance with the collection of information requirements of the
rule is mandatory and is necessary to comply with the requirements of
the rule in general. 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 control number.
General comments regarding the above information should be directed
to the following persons: (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 e-mail to: David--
Rostker@omb.eop.gov; and (ii) R. Corey Booth, Director/Chief
Information Officer, Office of Information Technology, Securities and
Exchange Commission, 100 F. Street, NE., Washington, DC 20549. Comments
must be submitted to OMB within 30 days of this notice.
Dated: January 25, 2006.
Nancy M. Morris,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. E6-1310 Filed 1-31-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8010-01-P
