Self-Regulatory Organizations; International Securities Exchange, LLC; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change To Amend the Schedule of Fees, 64042-64046 [2015-26811]
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Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 204 / Thursday, October 22, 2015 / Notices
continually review, and consider
adjusting, its fees and rebates to remain
competitive with other exchanges. For
the reasons described above, the
Exchange believes that the proposed fee
changes reflect this competitive
environment.
C. Self-Regulatory Organization’s
Statement on Comments on the
Proposed Rule Change Received From
Members, Participants, or Others
The Exchange has not solicited, and
does not intend to solicit, comments on
this proposed rule change. The
Exchange has not received any
unsolicited written comments from
members or other interested parties.
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)(ii) of the Act 6 and
subparagraph (f)(2) of Rule 19b–4
thereunder,7 because it establishes a
due, fee, or other charge imposed by
ISE.
At any time within 60 days of the
filing of such 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.
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
All submissions should refer to File
Number SR–ISE–2015–31. 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 (https://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
office of the Exchange. 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–ISE–
2015–31, and should be submitted on or
before November 12, 2015.
For the Commission, by the Division of
Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated
authority.8
Brent J. Fields,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2015–26809 Filed 10–21–15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011–01–P
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION
[Release No. 34–76181; File No. SR–ISE–
2015–33]
Self-Regulatory Organizations;
International Securities Exchange,
LLC; Notice of Filing and Immediate
Effectiveness of Proposed Rule
Change To Amend the Schedule of
Fees
Paper Comments
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
• Use the Commission’s Internet
comment form (https://www.sec.gov/
rules/sro.shtml); or
• Send an email to rule-comments@
sec.gov. Please include File Number SR–
ISE–2015–31 on the subject line.
October 16, 2015.
• Send paper comments in triplicate
to Brent J. Fields, Secretary, Securities
and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street
NE., Washington, DC 20549–1090.
Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the
‘‘Act’’),1 and Rule 19b–4 thereunder,2
notice is hereby given that on October
8 17
CFR 200.30–3(a)(12).
U.S.C. 78s(b)(1).
2 17 CFR 240.19b–4.
6 15
U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(A)(ii).
7 17 CFR 240.19b–4(f)(2).
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1, 2015, the International Securities
Exchange, LLC (the ‘‘Exchange’’ or
‘‘ISE’’) filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission the proposed
rule change, as described in Items I, II,
and III below, which items have been
prepared by the self-regulatory
organization. The Commission is
publishing this notice to solicit
comments on the proposed rule change
from interested persons.
I. Self-Regulatory Organization’s
Statement of the Terms of Substance of
the Proposed Rule Change
ISE proposes to amend the Schedule
of Fees as described in more detail
below. The text of the proposed rule
change is available on the Exchange’s
Internet Web site at https://www.ise.com,
at the principal office of the Exchange,
and at the Commission’s Public
Reference Room.
II. Self-Regulatory Organization’s
Statement of the Purpose of, and
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule
Change
In its filing with the Commission, the
Exchange included statements
concerning the purpose of, and basis for,
the proposed rule change and discussed
any comments it received on the
proposed rule change. The text of these
statements may be examined at the
places specified in Item IV below. The
self-regulatory organization 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
The Exchange proposes to amend its
Schedule of Fees to increase the fees
charged to subscribers of the ISE Order
Feed and to standardize the managed
data fees charged for the ISE Order
Feed, ISE Top Quote Feed, and ISE
Spread Feed 3 with a modest increase to
the fees charged.
Order Feed
The Order Feed provides real-time
updates to subscribers every time a new
limit order that is not immediately
executable at the BBO is placed on the
ISE order book. The Order Feed also
announces the commencement of
3 With the exception that the ISE Spread Feed
will continue to be subject to a higher controlled
device fee than the ISE Order Feed and ISE Top
Quote Feed. Additionally, nothing in this rule filing
affects subscription fee discounts offered to
members who subscribe to two data feeds (10%) or
three data feeds (20%).
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auctions including Flash, Facilitation,
Solicitation, Block Order and Price
Improvement Mechanisms, as well as
Directed Orders, but does not include
Immediate or Cancel (‘‘IOC’’) or Fill or
Kill (‘‘FOK’’) orders, quotes, or any nondisplayed interest. The information
included on the Order Feed includes
auction type, order side (i.e., buy/sell),
order price, order size, and a market
participant (e.g., priority customer)
indicator, as well as details for each
instrument series, including the
symbols (series and underlying
security), put or call indicator, the
expiration date, and the strike price of
the series. The Order Feed provides
each individual limit order, not
including quote traffic, resulting in
lower bandwidth usage and less data for
subscribers to process.
Currently, the Exchange charges
distributors $2,000 per month for
subscriptions to the Order Feed and will
not charge distributors a monthly fee
per controlled device as long the feed is
for internal use only.4 For subscribers
that redistribute the Order Feed
externally, or redistribute the Order
Feed internally and externally, the
Exchange charges each distributor an
additional fee of $10 per month per
controlled device with a combined
maximum fee capped at $2,500 per
month.
We now propose to increase the fee
charged to distributors to $3,000 per
month. The Exchange will not charge
distributors a monthly fee per controlled
device as long the feed is for internal
use only. For subscribers that
redistribute the Order Feed externally,
or redistribute the Order Feed internally
and externally, the Exchange proposes
to charge each distributor an additional
fee of $20 per month per controlled
device with a combined maximum fee
capped at $5,000 per month. For
example, a firm that subscribes to the
Order Feed and then redistributes it via
a controlled device to 50 clients pays
$4,000 per month ($3,000 for the feed
and $1,000 for the controlled devices
($20 × 50)). If that same firm
redistributes the data via a controlled
device to 150 clients, the fee for that
firm is capped at $5,000 per month,
resulting in a savings of $1,000.
Managed Data Fees
On June 6, 2013 ISE implemented a
temporary Managed Data Access Service
program that established a new pricing
4 A distributor is any firm that receives one of the
market data feeds directly from ISE or indirectly
through a redistributor and then distributes it either
internally or externally. A redistributor includes
market data vendors and connectivity providers
such as extranets and private network providers.
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and distribution model for the sale of a
number of real-time market data
products.5 The Exchange recently
extended this program until August 31,
2016, so that the Exchange could
continue to provide this alternative
delivery option for ISE data feeds.6
Managed Data Access Service is a
pricing and administrative option
whereby the ISE assesses fees to
Managed Data Access Distributors,7 who
redistribute market data to Managed
Data Access Recipients.8 Managed Data
Access Distributors are required to
monitor the delivery of the data
retransmitted to their clients, and must
agree to reformat, redisplay and/or alter
the data feeds prior to retransmission
without affecting the integrity of the
data feeds and without rendering any of
the feeds inaccurate, unfair,
uninformative, fictitious, misleading, or
discriminatory.
Currently, the Exchange charges a fee
to each Managed Data Access
Distributor of $1,500 for each of the Top
Quote Feed and the Spread Feed, and
$1,000 per month for the Order Feed.
The Exchange also charges a fee for each
IP address at Managed Data Access
Recipients that receive market data
redistributed by a Managed Data Access
Distributor, which is $500 per month for
each of the Top Quote Feed and the
Spread Feed, and $350 per month for
the Order Feed.9 In addition, the
Exchange charges a controlled device
fee for each controlled device permitted
to access market data redistributed by a
Managed Data Access Distributor to a
Market Data Access Recipient that is a
Professional user,10 which is $20 per
month for the Top Quote Feed, $25 per
month for the Spread Feed, and $10 per
5 See Exchange Act Release No. 69806 (June 20,
2013), 78 FR 38424 (June 26, 2013), SR–ISE–2013–
39.
6 See Exchange Act Release No. 34–75874
(September 10, 2015), 80 FR 55669 (September 16,
2015), SR–ISE–2015–25.
7 A Managed Data Access Distributor redistributes
ISE data feeds and permits access to the information
in those data feeds through a controlled device. A
Managed Data Access Distributor can also
redistribute a data feed solution to specific IP
addresses, including an Application Programming
Interface (‘‘API’’) or similar automated delivery
solutions, with only limited entitlement controls
(e.g., usernames and/or passwords) to a recipient of
the information.
8 A Managed Data Access Recipient is a
subscriber to the Managed Data Access Distributor
who receives a reformatted data feed in a controlled
device or at a specific IP address. Market Data
Access Recipients may be Professional or NonProfessional users.
9 This fee is charged per IP address, which covers
both primary and back-up IP addresses at a
Managed Data Access Recipient.
10 A ‘‘Professional user’’ is an authorized end-user
of the ISE data feeds that has not qualified as a NonProfessional user.
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64043
month for the Order Feed.11 For each of
the above ISE data feeds, Market Data
Access Distributors are subject to a
minimum fee, which is $3,000 per
month for each of the Top Quote Feed
and the Spread Feed, and $2,000 per
month for the Order Feed.
The Exchange now proposes to charge
each Managed Data Access Distributor a
monthly fee of $2,000 for the Order
Feed, Top Quote Feed, and Spread
Feed. The Exchange also proposes to
charge each IP address at Managed Data
Access Recipients that received market
data redistributed by a Managed Data
Access Distributor a monthly fee of $500
for the Order Feed.12 In addition, for
each controlled device permitted to
access market data redistributed by a
Managed Data Access Distributor to a
Market Data Access Recipient that is a
Professional user the Exchange proposes
a fee of $20 per month for the Order
Feed.13 Finally, for the Order Feed, Top
Quote Feed, and Spread Feed, Market
Data Access Distributors are subject to a
minimum fee, which the Exchange now
proposes to change to $4,000 per month.
2. Statutory Basis
The Exchange believes that its
proposal is consistent with Section 6(b)
of the Act,14 in general, and furthers the
objectives of Section 6(b)(4) of the Act,15
in particular, in that it provides for an
equitable allocation of reasonable fees
and other charges among Exchange
Members and other persons using its
facilities.
The Exchange believes that the
proposed rule change is also consistent
with Section 6(b)(8) of the Act,16 in that
it does not impose any burden on
competition not necessary or
appropriate in furtherance of the
purposes of the Act. The proposed fees
are the same for all similarly-situated
market participants, and therefore do
not unreasonably discriminate among
market participants. Moreover, the
Exchange notes that the proposed fees
are similar to the fees charged by other
exchanges. For example, similar to the
ISE Order Feed, NASDAQ OMX PHLX
(‘‘PHLX’’) charges a monthly fee of
$3,000 for internal distributors and
$3,500 for external distributors plus a
monthly fee of $1 for non-professional
subscribers and $40 for professional
11 A controlled device is any device that a
distributor of an ISE data feed permits to access the
information in that data feed.
12 The fee for the Top Quote Feed and the Spread
Feed are not being changed.
13 The fee for the Top Quote Feed and the Spread
Feed are not being changed.
14 15 U.S.C. 78f(b).
15 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(4).
16 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(8).
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Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 204 / Thursday, October 22, 2015 / Notices
subscribers.17 Additionally, similar to
ISE’s Managed Data Order Feed, PHLX
charges $2,000 per month per
distributor and $500 per month per
subscriber.18 Further, the market data
fees will be easier to understand
because the proposed rule standardizes
them.
In adopting Regulation NMS, the
Commission granted self-regulatory
organizations and broker-dealers
increased authority and flexibility to
offer new and unique market data to the
public. It was believed that this
authority would expand the amount of
data available to consumers, and also
spur innovation and competition for the
provision of market data.
The Commission concluded that
Regulation NMS—by deregulating the
market in proprietary data—would itself
further the Act’s goals of facilitating
efficiency and competition:
[E]fficiency is promoted when brokerdealers who do not need the data beyond the
prices, sizes, market center identifications of
the NBBO and consolidated last sale
information are not required to receive (and
pay for) such data. The Commission also
believes that efficiency is promoted when
broker-dealers may choose to receive (and
pay for) additional market data based on their
own internal analysis of the need for such
data.19
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By removing ‘‘unnecessary regulatory
restrictions’’ on the ability of exchanges
to sell their own data, Regulation NMS
advanced the goals of the Act and the
principles reflected in its legislative
history. If the free market should
determine whether proprietary data is
sold to broker-dealers at all, it follows
that the price at which such data is sold
should be set by the market as well.
On July 21, 2010, President Barak [sic]
Obama signed into law H.R. 4173, the
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and
Consumer Protection Act of 2010
(‘‘Dodd-Frank Act’’), which amended
Section 19 of the Act. Among other
things, Section 916 of the Dodd-Frank
Act amended paragraph (A) of Section
19(b)(3) of the Act by inserting the
phrase ‘‘on any person, whether or not
the person is a member of the selfregulatory organization’’ after ‘‘due, fee
or other charge imposed by the selfregulatory organization.’’ As a result, all
SRO rule proposals establishing or
changing dues, fees, or other charges are
17 See IX. Proprietary Data Feed Fees, PHLX
Orders, available at https://www.nasdaqtrader.com/
Micro.aspx?id=phlxpricing.
18 See IX. Proprietary Data Feed Fees, Fee
Schedule for Managed Data Solutions for NonDisplay Usage, available at https://
www.nasdaqtrader.com/Micro.aspx?id=phlxpricing.
19 See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 51808
(June 9, 2005), 70 FR 37496 (June 29, 2005).
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immediately effective upon filing
regardless of whether such dues, fees, or
other charges are imposed on members
of the SRO, non-members, or both.
Section 916 further amended paragraph
(C) of Section 19(b)(3) of the Act to read,
in pertinent part, ‘‘At any time within
the 60-day period beginning on the date
of filing of such a proposed rule change
in accordance with the provisions of
paragraph (1) [of Section 19(b)], the
Commission summarily may
temporarily suspend the change in the
rules of the self-regulatory organization
made thereby, 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 this title. If the Commission
takes such action, the Commission shall
institute proceedings under paragraph
(2)(B) [of Section 19(b)] to determine
whether the proposed rule should be
approved or disapproved.’’
The decision of the United States
Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit in NetCoalition v.
SEC, 615 F.3d 525 (D.C. Cir. 2010),
although reviewing a Commission
decision made prior to the effective date
of the Dodd-Frank Act, upheld the
Commission’s reliance upon
competitive markets to set reasonable
and equitably allocated fees for market
data. ‘‘In fact, the legislative history
indicates that the Congress intended
that the market system ‘evolve through
the interplay of competitive forces as
unnecessary regulatory restrictions are
removed’ and that the SEC wield its
regulatory power ‘in those situations
where competition may not be
sufficient,’ such as in the creation of a
‘consolidated transactional reporting
system.’ ’’ 20
The court’s conclusions about
Congressional intent are therefore
reinforced by the Dodd-Frank Act
amendments, which create a
presumption that exchange fees,
including market data fees, may take
effect immediately, without prior
Commission approval, and that the
Commission should take action to
suspend a fee change and institute a
proceeding to determine whether the fee
change should be approved or
disapproved only where the
Commission has concerns that the
change may not be consistent with the
Act.
The Exchange believes that the
proposed fees for the ISE market data
offering is consistent with the
20 NetCoalition, at 535 (quoting H.R. Rep. No. 94–
229, at 92 (1975), as reprinted in 1975 U.S.C.C.A.N.
321, 323).
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requirements of the Act because
competition provides an effective
constraint on the market data fees that
the Exchange has the ability and the
incentive to charge. ISE has a
compelling need to attract order flow
from market participants in order to
maintain its share of trading volume.
This compelling need to attract order
flow imposes significant pressure on the
Exchange to act reasonably in setting the
fees for its market data offerings,
particularly given that the market
participants that will pay such fees
often will be the same market
participants from whom the Exchange
must attract order flow. These market
participants include broker-dealers that
control the handling of a large volume
of customer and proprietary order flow.
Given the portability of order flow from
one exchange to another, any exchange
that sought to charge unreasonably high
market data fees would risk alienating
many of the same customers on whose
orders it depends for competitive
survival. ISE currently competes with
11 [sic] other options exchanges for
order flow.
The Exchange is constrained in
pricing its market data offerings by the
availability to market participants of
alternatives to purchasing these
products. The Exchange must consider
the extent to which market participants
would choose one or more alternatives
instead of purchasing the Exchange’s
data.
For the reasons cited above, the
Exchange believes that the proposed
fees for the ISE data feeds are equitable,
fair, reasonable and not unreasonably
discriminatory. The Exchange further
believes that the continued availability
of each of the ISE data feeds enhances
transparency, fosters competition among
orders and markets, and enables buyers
and sellers to obtain better prices. In
addition, the Exchange believes that no
substantial countervailing basis exists to
support a finding that the proposed
terms and fees for these products fail to
meet the requirements of the Act.
B. Self-Regulatory Organization’s
Statement on Burden on Competition
In accordance with Section 6(b)(8) of
the Act,21 the Exchange does not believe
that the proposed rule change will
impose any burden on intermarket or
intramarket competition that is not
necessary or appropriate in furtherance
of the purposes of the Act.
Notwithstanding its determination that
the Commission may rely upon
competition to establish fair and
equitably allocated fees for market data,
21 15
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U.S.C. 78f(b)(8).
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the NetCoaltion [sic] court found that
the Commission had not, in that case,
compiled a record that adequately
supported its conclusion that the market
for the data at issue in the case was
competitive. The Exchange believes that
a record may readily be established to
demonstrate the competitive nature of
the market in question.
For the reasons discussed above, the
Exchange believes that the Dodd-Frank
Act amendments to Section 19
materially alter the scope of the
Commission’s review of future market
data filings, by creating a presumption
that all fees may take effect
immediately, without prior analysis by
the Commission of the competitive
environment. Even in the absence of
this important statutory change,
however, the Exchange believes that a
record may readily be established to
demonstrate the competitive nature of
the market in question.
There is intense competition between
trading platforms that provide
transaction execution and routing
services and proprietary data products.
Transaction execution and proprietary
data products are complementary in that
market data is both an input and a
byproduct of the execution service. In
fact, market data and trade execution are
a paradigmatic example of joint
products with joint costs. The decision
whether and on which platform to post
an order will depend on the attributes
of the platform where the order can be
posted, including the execution fees,
data quality and price and distribution
of its data products. Without the
prospect of a taking order seeing and
reacting to a posted order on a particular
platform, the posting of the order would
accomplish little. Without trade
executions, exchange data products
cannot exist. Data products are valuable
to many end users only insofar as they
provide information that end users
expect will assist them or their
customers in making trading decisions.
The costs of producing market data
include not only the costs of the data
distribution infrastructure, but also the
costs of designing, maintaining, and
operating the exchange’s transaction
execution platform and the cost of
regulating the exchange to ensure its fair
operation and maintain investor
confidence. The total return that a
trading platform earns reflects the
revenues it receives from both products
and the joint costs it incurs. Moreover,
an exchange’s customers view the costs
of transaction executions and of data as
a unified cost of doing business with the
exchange. A broker-dealer will direct
orders to a particular exchange only if
the expected revenues from executing
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trades on the exchange exceed net
transaction execution costs and the cost
of data that the broker-dealer chooses to
buy to support its trading decisions (or
those of its customers). The choice of
data products is, in turn, a product of
the value of the products in making
profitable trading decisions. If the cost
of the product exceeds its expected
value, the broker-dealer will choose not
to buy it.
Moreover, as a broker-dealer chooses
to direct fewer orders to a particular
exchange, the value of the product to
that broker-dealer decrease, for two
reasons. First, the product will contain
less information, because executions of
the broker-dealer’s orders will not be
reflected in it. Second, and perhaps
more important, the product will be less
valuable to that broker-dealer because it
does not provide information about the
venue to which it is directing its orders.
Data from the competing venue to
which the broker-dealer is directing
orders will become correspondingly
more valuable. Thus, a supercompetitive increase in the fees charged
for either transactions or data has the
potential to impair revenues from both
products. ‘‘No one disputes that
competition for order flow is ‘fierce’.’’ 22
However, the existence of fierce
competition for order flow implies a
high degree of price sensitivity on the
part of broker-dealers with order flow,
since they may readily reduce costs by
directing orders toward the lowest-cost
trading venues. A broker-dealer that
shifted its order flow from one platform
to another in response to order
execution price differentials would both
reduce the value of that platform’s
market data and reduce its own need to
consume data from the disfavored
platform. Similarly, if a platform
increases its market data fees, the
change will affect the overall cost of
doing business with the platform, and
affected broker-dealers will assess
whether they can lower their trading
costs by directing orders elsewhere and
thereby lessening the need for the more
expensive data.
Analyzing the cost of market data
distribution in isolation from the cost of
all of the inputs supporting the creation
of market data will inevitably
underestimate the cost of the data. Thus,
because it is impossible to create data
without a fast, technologically robust,
and well-regulated execution system,
system costs and regulatory costs affect
the price of market data. It would be
equally misleading, however, to
attribute all of the exchange’s costs to
the market data portion of an exchange’s
22 NetCoalition,
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64045
joint product. Rather, all of the
exchange’s costs are incurred for the
unified purposes of attracting order
flow, executing and/or routing orders,
and generating and selling data about
market activity. The total return that an
exchange earns reflects the revenues it
receives from the joint products and the
total costs of the joint products.
Competition among trading platforms
can be expected to constrain the
aggregate return each platform earns
from the sale of its joint products, but
different platforms may choose from a
range of possible, and equally
reasonable, pricing strategies as the
means of recovering total costs. For
example, some platform may choose to
pay rebates to attract orders, charge
relatively low prices for market
information (or provide information free
of charge) and charge relatively high
prices for accessing posted liquidity.
Other platforms may choose a strategy
of paying lower rebates (or no rebates)
to attract orders, setting relatively high
prices for market information, and
setting relatively low prices for
accessing posted liquidity. In this
environment, there is no economic basis
for regulating maximum prices for one
of the joint products in an industry in
which suppliers face competitive
constraints with regard to the joint
offering.
The market for market data products
is competitive and inherently
contestable because there is fierce
competition for the inputs necessary to
the creation of proprietary data and
strict pricing discipline for the
proprietary products themselves.
Numerous exchanges compete with
each other for listings, trades, and
market data itself, providing virtually
limitless opportunities for entrepreneurs
who wish to produce and distribute
their own market data. This proprietary
data is produced by each individual
exchange, as well as other entities, in a
vigorously competitive market.
Broker-dealers currently have
numerous alternative venues for their
order flow, including numerous selfregulatory organization (‘‘SRO’’)
markets, as well as internalizing brokerdealers (‘‘BDs’’) and various forms of
alternative trading systems (‘‘ATSs’’),
including dark pools and electronic
communication networks (‘‘ECNs’’).
Each SRO market competes to produce
transaction reports via trade executions,
and two FINRA-regulated Trade
Reporting Facilities (‘‘TRFs’’) compete
to attract internalized transaction
reports. Competitive markets for order
flow, executions, and transaction
reports provide pricing discipline for
the inputs of proprietary data products.
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Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 204 / Thursday, October 22, 2015 / Notices
The large number of SROs, TRFs, BDs,
and ATSs that currently produce
proprietary data or are currently capable
of producing it provides further pricing
discipline for proprietary data products.
Each SRO, TRF, ATS, and BD is
currently permitted to produce
proprietary data products, and many
currently do.
Any ATS or BD can combine with any
other ATS, BD, or multiple ATSs or BDs
to produce joint proprietary data
products. Additionally, order routers
and market data vendors can facilitate
single or multiple broker-dealers’
production of proprietary data products.
The potential sources of proprietary
products are virtually limitless.
The fact that proprietary data from
ATSs, BDs, and vendors can by-pass
SROs is significant in two respects.
First, non-SROs can compete directly
with SROs for the production and sale
of proprietary data products, as BATS
and Arca did before registering as
exchanges by publishing proprietary
book data on the Internet. Second,
because a single order or transaction
report can appear in an SRO proprietary
product, a non-SRO proprietary
product, or both, the data available in
proprietary products is exponentially
greater than the actual number of orders
and transaction reports that exist in the
marketplace. Market data vendors
provide another form of price discipline
for proprietary data products because
they control the primary means of
access to end users. Vendors impose
price restraints based upon their
business models. For example, vendors
such as Bloomberg and Reuters that
assess a surcharge on data they sell may
refuse to offer proprietary products that
end users will not purchase in sufficient
numbers. Internet portals, such as
Google, impose a discipline by
providing only data that will enable
them to attract ‘‘eyeballs’’ that
contribute to their advertising revenue.
Retail broker-dealers, such as Schwab
and Fidelity, offer their customers
proprietary data only if it promotes
trading and generates sufficient
commission revenue. Although the
business models may differ, these
vendors’ pricing discipline is the same:
They can simply refuse to purchase any
proprietary data product that fails to
provide sufficient value. The Exchange
and other producers of proprietary data
products must understand and respond
to these varying business models and
pricing disciplines in order to market
proprietary data products successfully.
VerDate Sep<11>2014
18:05 Oct 21, 2015
Jkt 238001
C. Self-Regulatory Organization’s
Statement on Comments on the
Proposed Rule Change Received From
Members, Participants, or Others
The Exchange has not solicited, and
does not intend to solicit, comments on
this proposed rule change. The
Exchange has not received any
unsolicited written comments from
members or other interested parties.
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)(ii) of the Act,23 and
subparagraph (f)(2) of Rule 19b–4
thereunder,24 because it establishes a
due, fee, or other charge imposed by
ISE.
At any time within 60 days of the
filing of such 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.
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 (https://www.sec.gov/
rules/sro.shtml); or
• Send an email to rule-comments@
sec.gov. Please include File Number SR–
ISE–2015–33 on the subject line.
Paper Comments
• Send paper comments in triplicate
to Brent J. Fields, Secretary, Securities
and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street
NE., Washington, DC 20549–1090.
All submissions should refer to File
Number SR–ISE–2015–33. 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 (https://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
office of the Exchange. 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–ISE–
2015–33, and should be submitted on or
before November 12, 2015.
For the Commission, by the Division of
Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated
authority.25
Brent J. Fields,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2015–26811 Filed 10–21–15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011–01–P
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION
[Release No. 34–76180; File No. SR–
ISEGemini–2015–19]
Self-Regulatory Organizations; ISE
Gemini, LLC; Notice of Filing and
Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed
Rule Change To Amend the Schedule
of Fees
October 16, 2015.
Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the
‘‘Act’’),1 and Rule 19b–4 thereunder,2
notice is hereby given that on October
1, 2015, ISE Gemini, LLC (the
‘‘Exchange’’ or ‘‘ISE Gemini’’) filed with
the Securities and Exchange
Commission (‘‘Commission’’) the
proposed rule change, as described in
Items I, II, and III below, which Items
have been prepared by the selfregulatory organization. The
Commission is publishing this notice to
25 17
23 15
U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(A)(ii).
24 17 CFR 240.19b–4(f)(2).
PO 00000
Frm 00090
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
CFR 200.30–3(a)(12).
15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(1).
2 17 CFR 240.19b–4.
1
E:\FR\FM\22OCN1.SGM
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Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 204 (Thursday, October 22, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64042-64046]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-26811]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
[Release No. 34-76181; File No. SR-ISE-2015-33]
Self-Regulatory Organizations; International Securities Exchange,
LLC; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule
Change To Amend the Schedule of Fees
October 16, 2015.
Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
(the ``Act''),\1\ and Rule 19b-4 thereunder,\2\ notice is hereby given
that on October 1, 2015, the International Securities Exchange, LLC
(the ``Exchange'' or ``ISE'') filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission the proposed rule change, as described in Items I, II, and
III below, which items have been prepared by the self-regulatory
organization. The Commission is publishing this notice to solicit
comments on the proposed rule change from interested persons.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(1).
\2\ 17 CFR 240.19b-4.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Terms of Substance
of the Proposed Rule Change
ISE proposes to amend the Schedule of Fees as described in more
detail below. The text of the proposed rule change is available on the
Exchange's Internet Web site at https://www.ise.com, at the principal
office of the Exchange, and at the Commission's Public Reference Room.
II. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Purpose of, and
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change
In its filing with the Commission, the Exchange included statements
concerning the purpose of, and basis for, the proposed rule change and
discussed any comments it received on the proposed rule change. The
text of these statements may be examined at the places specified in
Item IV below. The self-regulatory organization 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
The Exchange proposes to amend its Schedule of Fees to increase the
fees charged to subscribers of the ISE Order Feed and to standardize
the managed data fees charged for the ISE Order Feed, ISE Top Quote
Feed, and ISE Spread Feed \3\ with a modest increase to the fees
charged.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ With the exception that the ISE Spread Feed will continue to
be subject to a higher controlled device fee than the ISE Order Feed
and ISE Top Quote Feed. Additionally, nothing in this rule filing
affects subscription fee discounts offered to members who subscribe
to two data feeds (10%) or three data feeds (20%).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Order Feed
The Order Feed provides real-time updates to subscribers every time
a new limit order that is not immediately executable at the BBO is
placed on the ISE order book. The Order Feed also announces the
commencement of
[[Page 64043]]
auctions including Flash, Facilitation, Solicitation, Block Order and
Price Improvement Mechanisms, as well as Directed Orders, but does not
include Immediate or Cancel (``IOC'') or Fill or Kill (``FOK'') orders,
quotes, or any non-displayed interest. The information included on the
Order Feed includes auction type, order side (i.e., buy/sell), order
price, order size, and a market participant (e.g., priority customer)
indicator, as well as details for each instrument series, including the
symbols (series and underlying security), put or call indicator, the
expiration date, and the strike price of the series. The Order Feed
provides each individual limit order, not including quote traffic,
resulting in lower bandwidth usage and less data for subscribers to
process.
Currently, the Exchange charges distributors $2,000 per month for
subscriptions to the Order Feed and will not charge distributors a
monthly fee per controlled device as long the feed is for internal use
only.\4\ For subscribers that redistribute the Order Feed externally,
or redistribute the Order Feed internally and externally, the Exchange
charges each distributor an additional fee of $10 per month per
controlled device with a combined maximum fee capped at $2,500 per
month.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ A distributor is any firm that receives one of the market
data feeds directly from ISE or indirectly through a redistributor
and then distributes it either internally or externally. A
redistributor includes market data vendors and connectivity
providers such as extranets and private network providers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
We now propose to increase the fee charged to distributors to
$3,000 per month. The Exchange will not charge distributors a monthly
fee per controlled device as long the feed is for internal use only.
For subscribers that redistribute the Order Feed externally, or
redistribute the Order Feed internally and externally, the Exchange
proposes to charge each distributor an additional fee of $20 per month
per controlled device with a combined maximum fee capped at $5,000 per
month. For example, a firm that subscribes to the Order Feed and then
redistributes it via a controlled device to 50 clients pays $4,000 per
month ($3,000 for the feed and $1,000 for the controlled devices ($20 x
50)). If that same firm redistributes the data via a controlled device
to 150 clients, the fee for that firm is capped at $5,000 per month,
resulting in a savings of $1,000.
Managed Data Fees
On June 6, 2013 ISE implemented a temporary Managed Data Access
Service program that established a new pricing and distribution model
for the sale of a number of real-time market data products.\5\ The
Exchange recently extended this program until August 31, 2016, so that
the Exchange could continue to provide this alternative delivery option
for ISE data feeds.\6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ See Exchange Act Release No. 69806 (June 20, 2013), 78 FR
38424 (June 26, 2013), SR-ISE-2013-39.
\6\ See Exchange Act Release No. 34-75874 (September 10, 2015),
80 FR 55669 (September 16, 2015), SR-ISE-2015-25.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Managed Data Access Service is a pricing and administrative option
whereby the ISE assesses fees to Managed Data Access Distributors,\7\
who redistribute market data to Managed Data Access Recipients.\8\
Managed Data Access Distributors are required to monitor the delivery
of the data retransmitted to their clients, and must agree to reformat,
redisplay and/or alter the data feeds prior to retransmission without
affecting the integrity of the data feeds and without rendering any of
the feeds inaccurate, unfair, uninformative, fictitious, misleading, or
discriminatory.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ A Managed Data Access Distributor redistributes ISE data
feeds and permits access to the information in those data feeds
through a controlled device. A Managed Data Access Distributor can
also redistribute a data feed solution to specific IP addresses,
including an Application Programming Interface (``API'') or similar
automated delivery solutions, with only limited entitlement controls
(e.g., usernames and/or passwords) to a recipient of the
information.
\8\ A Managed Data Access Recipient is a subscriber to the
Managed Data Access Distributor who receives a reformatted data feed
in a controlled device or at a specific IP address. Market Data
Access Recipients may be Professional or Non-Professional users.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Currently, the Exchange charges a fee to each Managed Data Access
Distributor of $1,500 for each of the Top Quote Feed and the Spread
Feed, and $1,000 per month for the Order Feed. The Exchange also
charges a fee for each IP address at Managed Data Access Recipients
that receive market data redistributed by a Managed Data Access
Distributor, which is $500 per month for each of the Top Quote Feed and
the Spread Feed, and $350 per month for the Order Feed.\9\ In addition,
the Exchange charges a controlled device fee for each controlled device
permitted to access market data redistributed by a Managed Data Access
Distributor to a Market Data Access Recipient that is a Professional
user,\10\ which is $20 per month for the Top Quote Feed, $25 per month
for the Spread Feed, and $10 per month for the Order Feed.\11\ For each
of the above ISE data feeds, Market Data Access Distributors are
subject to a minimum fee, which is $3,000 per month for each of the Top
Quote Feed and the Spread Feed, and $2,000 per month for the Order
Feed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ This fee is charged per IP address, which covers both
primary and back-up IP addresses at a Managed Data Access Recipient.
\10\ A ``Professional user'' is an authorized end-user of the
ISE data feeds that has not qualified as a Non-Professional user.
\11\ A controlled device is any device that a distributor of an
ISE data feed permits to access the information in that data feed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Exchange now proposes to charge each Managed Data Access
Distributor a monthly fee of $2,000 for the Order Feed, Top Quote Feed,
and Spread Feed. The Exchange also proposes to charge each IP address
at Managed Data Access Recipients that received market data
redistributed by a Managed Data Access Distributor a monthly fee of
$500 for the Order Feed.\12\ In addition, for each controlled device
permitted to access market data redistributed by a Managed Data Access
Distributor to a Market Data Access Recipient that is a Professional
user the Exchange proposes a fee of $20 per month for the Order
Feed.\13\ Finally, for the Order Feed, Top Quote Feed, and Spread Feed,
Market Data Access Distributors are subject to a minimum fee, which the
Exchange now proposes to change to $4,000 per month.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\12\ The fee for the Top Quote Feed and the Spread Feed are not
being changed.
\13\ The fee for the Top Quote Feed and the Spread Feed are not
being changed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Statutory Basis
The Exchange believes that its proposal is consistent with Section
6(b) of the Act,\14\ in general, and furthers the objectives of Section
6(b)(4) of the Act,\15\ in particular, in that it provides for an
equitable allocation of reasonable fees and other charges among
Exchange Members and other persons using its facilities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\14\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b).
\15\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(4).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Exchange believes that the proposed rule change is also
consistent with Section 6(b)(8) of the Act,\16\ in that it does not
impose any burden on competition not necessary or appropriate in
furtherance of the purposes of the Act. The proposed fees are the same
for all similarly-situated market participants, and therefore do not
unreasonably discriminate among market participants. Moreover, the
Exchange notes that the proposed fees are similar to the fees charged
by other exchanges. For example, similar to the ISE Order Feed, NASDAQ
OMX PHLX (``PHLX'') charges a monthly fee of $3,000 for internal
distributors and $3,500 for external distributors plus a monthly fee of
$1 for non-professional subscribers and $40 for professional
[[Page 64044]]
subscribers.\17\ Additionally, similar to ISE's Managed Data Order
Feed, PHLX charges $2,000 per month per distributor and $500 per month
per subscriber.\18\ Further, the market data fees will be easier to
understand because the proposed rule standardizes them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\16\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(8).
\17\ See IX. Proprietary Data Feed Fees, PHLX Orders, available
at https://www.nasdaqtrader.com/Micro.aspx?id=phlxpricing.
\18\ See IX. Proprietary Data Feed Fees, Fee Schedule for
Managed Data Solutions for Non-Display Usage, available at https://www.nasdaqtrader.com/Micro.aspx?id=phlxpricing.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In adopting Regulation NMS, the Commission granted self-regulatory
organizations and broker-dealers increased authority and flexibility to
offer new and unique market data to the public. It was believed that
this authority would expand the amount of data available to consumers,
and also spur innovation and competition for the provision of market
data.
The Commission concluded that Regulation NMS--by deregulating the
market in proprietary data--would itself further the Act's goals of
facilitating efficiency and competition:
[E]fficiency is promoted when broker-dealers who do not need the
data beyond the prices, sizes, market center identifications of the
NBBO and consolidated last sale information are not required to
receive (and pay for) such data. The Commission also believes that
efficiency is promoted when broker-dealers may choose to receive
(and pay for) additional market data based on their own internal
analysis of the need for such data.\19\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\19\ See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 51808 (June 9,
2005), 70 FR 37496 (June 29, 2005).
By removing ``unnecessary regulatory restrictions'' on the ability
of exchanges to sell their own data, Regulation NMS advanced the goals
of the Act and the principles reflected in its legislative history. If
the free market should determine whether proprietary data is sold to
broker-dealers at all, it follows that the price at which such data is
sold should be set by the market as well.
On July 21, 2010, President Barak [sic] Obama signed into law H.R.
4173, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of
2010 (``Dodd-Frank Act''), which amended Section 19 of the Act. Among
other things, Section 916 of the Dodd-Frank Act amended paragraph (A)
of Section 19(b)(3) of the Act by inserting the phrase ``on any person,
whether or not the person is a member of the self-regulatory
organization'' after ``due, fee or other charge imposed by the self-
regulatory organization.'' As a result, all SRO rule proposals
establishing or changing dues, fees, or other charges are immediately
effective upon filing regardless of whether such dues, fees, or other
charges are imposed on members of the SRO, non-members, or both.
Section 916 further amended paragraph (C) of Section 19(b)(3) of the
Act to read, in pertinent part, ``At any time within the 60-day period
beginning on the date of filing of such a proposed rule change in
accordance with the provisions of paragraph (1) [of Section 19(b)], the
Commission summarily may temporarily suspend the change in the rules of
the self-regulatory organization made thereby, 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 this title. If the Commission takes such action, the
Commission shall institute proceedings under paragraph (2)(B) [of
Section 19(b)] to determine whether the proposed rule should be
approved or disapproved.''
The decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia Circuit in NetCoalition v. SEC, 615 F.3d 525 (D.C. Cir.
2010), although reviewing a Commission decision made prior to the
effective date of the Dodd-Frank Act, upheld the Commission's reliance
upon competitive markets to set reasonable and equitably allocated fees
for market data. ``In fact, the legislative history indicates that the
Congress intended that the market system `evolve through the interplay
of competitive forces as unnecessary regulatory restrictions are
removed' and that the SEC wield its regulatory power `in those
situations where competition may not be sufficient,' such as in the
creation of a `consolidated transactional reporting system.' '' \20\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\20\ NetCoalition, at 535 (quoting H.R. Rep. No. 94-229, at 92
(1975), as reprinted in 1975 U.S.C.C.A.N. 321, 323).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The court's conclusions about Congressional intent are therefore
reinforced by the Dodd-Frank Act amendments, which create a presumption
that exchange fees, including market data fees, may take effect
immediately, without prior Commission approval, and that the Commission
should take action to suspend a fee change and institute a proceeding
to determine whether the fee change should be approved or disapproved
only where the Commission has concerns that the change may not be
consistent with the Act.
The Exchange believes that the proposed fees for the ISE market
data offering is consistent with the requirements of the Act because
competition provides an effective constraint on the market data fees
that the Exchange has the ability and the incentive to charge. ISE has
a compelling need to attract order flow from market participants in
order to maintain its share of trading volume. This compelling need to
attract order flow imposes significant pressure on the Exchange to act
reasonably in setting the fees for its market data offerings,
particularly given that the market participants that will pay such fees
often will be the same market participants from whom the Exchange must
attract order flow. These market participants include broker-dealers
that control the handling of a large volume of customer and proprietary
order flow. Given the portability of order flow from one exchange to
another, any exchange that sought to charge unreasonably high market
data fees would risk alienating many of the same customers on whose
orders it depends for competitive survival. ISE currently competes with
11 [sic] other options exchanges for order flow.
The Exchange is constrained in pricing its market data offerings by
the availability to market participants of alternatives to purchasing
these products. The Exchange must consider the extent to which market
participants would choose one or more alternatives instead of
purchasing the Exchange's data.
For the reasons cited above, the Exchange believes that the
proposed fees for the ISE data feeds are equitable, fair, reasonable
and not unreasonably discriminatory. The Exchange further believes that
the continued availability of each of the ISE data feeds enhances
transparency, fosters competition among orders and markets, and enables
buyers and sellers to obtain better prices. In addition, the Exchange
believes that no substantial countervailing basis exists to support a
finding that the proposed terms and fees for these products fail to
meet the requirements of the Act.
B. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement on Burden on Competition
In accordance with Section 6(b)(8) of the Act,\21\ the Exchange
does not believe that the proposed rule change will impose any burden
on intermarket or intramarket competition that is not necessary or
appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the Act. Notwithstanding
its determination that the Commission may rely upon competition to
establish fair and equitably allocated fees for market data,
[[Page 64045]]
the NetCoaltion [sic] court found that the Commission had not, in that
case, compiled a record that adequately supported its conclusion that
the market for the data at issue in the case was competitive. The
Exchange believes that a record may readily be established to
demonstrate the competitive nature of the market in question.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\21\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(8).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the reasons discussed above, the Exchange believes that the
Dodd-Frank Act amendments to Section 19 materially alter the scope of
the Commission's review of future market data filings, by creating a
presumption that all fees may take effect immediately, without prior
analysis by the Commission of the competitive environment. Even in the
absence of this important statutory change, however, the Exchange
believes that a record may readily be established to demonstrate the
competitive nature of the market in question.
There is intense competition between trading platforms that provide
transaction execution and routing services and proprietary data
products. Transaction execution and proprietary data products are
complementary in that market data is both an input and a byproduct of
the execution service. In fact, market data and trade execution are a
paradigmatic example of joint products with joint costs. The decision
whether and on which platform to post an order will depend on the
attributes of the platform where the order can be posted, including the
execution fees, data quality and price and distribution of its data
products. Without the prospect of a taking order seeing and reacting to
a posted order on a particular platform, the posting of the order would
accomplish little. Without trade executions, exchange data products
cannot exist. Data products are valuable to many end users only insofar
as they provide information that end users expect will assist them or
their customers in making trading decisions.
The costs of producing market data include not only the costs of
the data distribution infrastructure, but also the costs of designing,
maintaining, and operating the exchange's transaction execution
platform and the cost of regulating the exchange to ensure its fair
operation and maintain investor confidence. The total return that a
trading platform earns reflects the revenues it receives from both
products and the joint costs it incurs. Moreover, an exchange's
customers view the costs of transaction executions and of data as a
unified cost of doing business with the exchange. A broker-dealer will
direct orders to a particular exchange only if the expected revenues
from executing trades on the exchange exceed net transaction execution
costs and the cost of data that the broker-dealer chooses to buy to
support its trading decisions (or those of its customers). The choice
of data products is, in turn, a product of the value of the products in
making profitable trading decisions. If the cost of the product exceeds
its expected value, the broker-dealer will choose not to buy it.
Moreover, as a broker-dealer chooses to direct fewer orders to a
particular exchange, the value of the product to that broker-dealer
decrease, for two reasons. First, the product will contain less
information, because executions of the broker-dealer's orders will not
be reflected in it. Second, and perhaps more important, the product
will be less valuable to that broker-dealer because it does not provide
information about the venue to which it is directing its orders. Data
from the competing venue to which the broker-dealer is directing orders
will become correspondingly more valuable. Thus, a super-competitive
increase in the fees charged for either transactions or data has the
potential to impair revenues from both products. ``No one disputes that
competition for order flow is `fierce'.'' \22\ However, the existence
of fierce competition for order flow implies a high degree of price
sensitivity on the part of broker-dealers with order flow, since they
may readily reduce costs by directing orders toward the lowest-cost
trading venues. A broker-dealer that shifted its order flow from one
platform to another in response to order execution price differentials
would both reduce the value of that platform's market data and reduce
its own need to consume data from the disfavored platform. Similarly,
if a platform increases its market data fees, the change will affect
the overall cost of doing business with the platform, and affected
broker-dealers will assess whether they can lower their trading costs
by directing orders elsewhere and thereby lessening the need for the
more expensive data.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\22\ NetCoalition, at 24.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzing the cost of market data distribution in isolation from
the cost of all of the inputs supporting the creation of market data
will inevitably underestimate the cost of the data. Thus, because it is
impossible to create data without a fast, technologically robust, and
well-regulated execution system, system costs and regulatory costs
affect the price of market data. It would be equally misleading,
however, to attribute all of the exchange's costs to the market data
portion of an exchange's joint product. Rather, all of the exchange's
costs are incurred for the unified purposes of attracting order flow,
executing and/or routing orders, and generating and selling data about
market activity. The total return that an exchange earns reflects the
revenues it receives from the joint products and the total costs of the
joint products.
Competition among trading platforms can be expected to constrain
the aggregate return each platform earns from the sale of its joint
products, but different platforms may choose from a range of possible,
and equally reasonable, pricing strategies as the means of recovering
total costs. For example, some platform may choose to pay rebates to
attract orders, charge relatively low prices for market information (or
provide information free of charge) and charge relatively high prices
for accessing posted liquidity. Other platforms may choose a strategy
of paying lower rebates (or no rebates) to attract orders, setting
relatively high prices for market information, and setting relatively
low prices for accessing posted liquidity. In this environment, there
is no economic basis for regulating maximum prices for one of the joint
products in an industry in which suppliers face competitive constraints
with regard to the joint offering.
The market for market data products is competitive and inherently
contestable because there is fierce competition for the inputs
necessary to the creation of proprietary data and strict pricing
discipline for the proprietary products themselves. Numerous exchanges
compete with each other for listings, trades, and market data itself,
providing virtually limitless opportunities for entrepreneurs who wish
to produce and distribute their own market data. This proprietary data
is produced by each individual exchange, as well as other entities, in
a vigorously competitive market.
Broker-dealers currently have numerous alternative venues for their
order flow, including numerous self-regulatory organization (``SRO'')
markets, as well as internalizing broker-dealers (``BDs'') and various
forms of alternative trading systems (``ATSs''), including dark pools
and electronic communication networks (``ECNs''). Each SRO market
competes to produce transaction reports via trade executions, and two
FINRA-regulated Trade Reporting Facilities (``TRFs'') compete to
attract internalized transaction reports. Competitive markets for order
flow, executions, and transaction reports provide pricing discipline
for the inputs of proprietary data products.
[[Page 64046]]
The large number of SROs, TRFs, BDs, and ATSs that currently produce
proprietary data or are currently capable of producing it provides
further pricing discipline for proprietary data products. Each SRO,
TRF, ATS, and BD is currently permitted to produce proprietary data
products, and many currently do.
Any ATS or BD can combine with any other ATS, BD, or multiple ATSs
or BDs to produce joint proprietary data products. Additionally, order
routers and market data vendors can facilitate single or multiple
broker-dealers' production of proprietary data products. The potential
sources of proprietary products are virtually limitless.
The fact that proprietary data from ATSs, BDs, and vendors can by-
pass SROs is significant in two respects. First, non-SROs can compete
directly with SROs for the production and sale of proprietary data
products, as BATS and Arca did before registering as exchanges by
publishing proprietary book data on the Internet. Second, because a
single order or transaction report can appear in an SRO proprietary
product, a non-SRO proprietary product, or both, the data available in
proprietary products is exponentially greater than the actual number of
orders and transaction reports that exist in the marketplace. Market
data vendors provide another form of price discipline for proprietary
data products because they control the primary means of access to end
users. Vendors impose price restraints based upon their business
models. For example, vendors such as Bloomberg and Reuters that assess
a surcharge on data they sell may refuse to offer proprietary products
that end users will not purchase in sufficient numbers. Internet
portals, such as Google, impose a discipline by providing only data
that will enable them to attract ``eyeballs'' that contribute to their
advertising revenue. Retail broker-dealers, such as Schwab and
Fidelity, offer their customers proprietary data only if it promotes
trading and generates sufficient commission revenue. Although the
business models may differ, these vendors' pricing discipline is the
same: They can simply refuse to purchase any proprietary data product
that fails to provide sufficient value. The Exchange and other
producers of proprietary data products must understand and respond to
these varying business models and pricing disciplines in order to
market proprietary data products successfully.
C. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement on Comments on the Proposed
Rule Change Received From Members, Participants, or Others
The Exchange has not solicited, and does not intend to solicit,
comments on this proposed rule change. The Exchange has not received
any unsolicited written comments from members or other interested
parties.
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)(ii) of the Act,\23\ and subparagraph (f)(2) of Rule 19b-4
thereunder,\24\ because it establishes a due, fee, or other charge
imposed by ISE.
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\23\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(A)(ii).
\24\ 17 CFR 240.19b-4(f)(2).
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At any time within 60 days of the filing of such 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.
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 (https://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml); or
Send an email to rule-comments@sec.gov. Please include
File Number SR-ISE-2015-33 on the subject line.
Paper Comments
Send paper comments in triplicate to Brent J. Fields,
Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street NE.,
Washington, DC 20549-1090.
All submissions should refer to File Number SR-ISE-2015-33. 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 (https://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 office of the Exchange. 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-ISE-2015-33, and should be
submitted on or before November 12, 2015.
For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets,
pursuant to delegated authority.\25\
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\25\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(12).
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Brent J. Fields,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2015-26811 Filed 10-21-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011-01-P