Self-Regulatory Organizations; The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change To Modify the Fees for Managed Data Solutions, 544-548 [2015-33208]

Download as PDF 544 Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 3 / Wednesday, January 6, 2016 / Notices subparagraph (f)(6) of Rule 19b–4 thereunder.19 At any time within 60 days of the filing of the proposed rule change, the Commission summarily may temporarily suspend such rule change if it appears to the Commission that such action is: (i) Necessary or appropriate in the public interest; (ii) for the protection of investors; or (iii) 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– Phlx–2015–99 on the subject line. Paper Comments • Send paper comments in triplicate to Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street NE., Washington, DC 20549–1090. All submissions should refer to File Number SR–Phlx–2015–99. 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 the 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–Phlx– 2015–99 and should be submitted on or before January 27, 2016. For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated authority.20 Jill M. Peterson, Assistant Secretary. (‘‘Act’’),1 and Rule 19b–4 thereunder,2 notice is hereby given that on December 18, 2015, The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC (‘‘NASDAQ’’) 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 NASDAQ. 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 the Substance of the Proposed Rule Change NASDAQ proposes to modify the charges to be paid for Managed Data Solutions (‘‘MDS’’). While the changes proposed herein are effective upon filing, the Exchange has designated that the amendments be operative on January 1, 2016. The text of the proposed rule change is below. Proposed new language is italicized; proposed deletions are bracketed. NASDAQ Stock Market Rules Equity Rules [FR Doc. 2015–33219 Filed 1–5–16; 8:45 am] * BILLING CODE 8011–01–P 7026. Distribution Models SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION [Release No. 34–76797; File No. SR– NASDAQ–2015–158] Self-Regulatory Organizations; The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change To Modify the Fees for Managed Data Solutions * * * (a) No change. (b) Managed Data Solutions The charges to be paid by Distributors and Subscribers of Managed Data Solutions products containing Nasdaq Depth data (non-display use only) shall be: December 30, 2015. Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 Fee schedule for managed data solutions Price mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES Managed Data Solution Administration Fee (for the right to offer Managed Data Solutions to client organizations). Nasdaq Depth Data Professional Subscriber Fee (Internal Use Only and includes TotalView, Level 2, OpenView). Nasdaq Depth Data Non-Professional Subscriber (Internal Use Only and includes TotalView, Level 2, OpenView). (c) Hardware-Based Delivery of Nasdaq Depth data (1) The charges to be paid by Distributors for processing Nasdaq Depth data sourced from a Nasdaq 19 7 CFR 240.19b–4(f)(6). In addition, Rule 19b– 4(f)(6) requires a self-regulatory organization to give the Commission written notice of its intent to file the proposed rule change at least five business days prior to the date of filing of the proposed rule change, or such shorter time as designated by the Commission. The Exchange has satisfied this requirement. VerDate Sep<11>2014 17:32 Jan 05, 2016 Jkt 238001 * PO 00000 Frm 00086 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 $[1]2,500/mo Per Distributor. 3[00]75/mo Per Subscriber. 60/mo Per Subscriber. hardware-based market data format shall be: 20 17 CFR 200.30–3(a)(12). U.S.C. 78s(b)(1). 2 17 CFR 240.19b–4. 1 15 E:\FR\FM\06JAN1.SGM 06JAN1 Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 3 / Wednesday, January 6, 2016 / Notices Hardware-Based delivery of Nasdaq depth data Monthly fee Internal Only Distributor ........................................................................................................................... External Only Distributor .......................................................................................................................... Internal and External Distributor .............................................................................................................. Managed Data Solution Administration Fee ............................................................................................ (2) No change. (3) No change. * * * * * II. Self-Regulatory Organization’s Statement of the Purpose of, and Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change In its filing with the Commission, NASDAQ 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. NASDAQ has prepared summaries, set forth in Sections A, B, and C below, of the most significant aspects of such statements. mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES A. Self-Regulatory Organization’s Statement of the Purpose of, and Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change 1. Purpose The purpose of the proposed rule change is to increase the charges to be paid by distributors and subscribers of Managed Data Solutions products containing Nasdaq Depth-of-Book data. Nasdaq Depth-of-Book data is defined in Nasdaq Rule 7023 to include TotalView, OpenView, and NASDAQ Level 2 (collectively, ‘‘Nasdaq Depth data’’). Specifically, the Exchange proposes to increase the fee charged to distributors for the right to offer Managed Data Solutions to client organizations to $2,500 per month per distributor (‘‘MDS Administration Fee’’), and the fee charged to professional subscribers to $375 per month per subscriber (‘‘MDS Subscriber Fee’’). This proposed rule change will not affect the pricing for non-professional subscribers. The Exchange also proposes to increase the administration fee charged to distributors for processing Nasdaq Depth data sourced from a Nasdaq hardware-based delivery option. This option uses field-programmable gate array (‘‘FPGA’’) technology, and serves those customers requiring a predictable latency profile throughout the trading day. By taking advantage of hardware parallelism, FPGA technology is capable VerDate Sep<11>2014 17:32 Jan 05, 2016 Jkt 238001 of processing more data packets during peak market conditions without the introduction of variable queuing latency. Specifically, the Exchange proposes to increase the tiered fee charged to distributors, which is based on the number of subscribers, to $5,000 per month for the first subscriber, and then $750 per month for each additional subscriber (‘‘FPGA Distributor Fee’’). MDS is a data delivery option available to distributors of Nasdaq Depth data information. Under the MDS fee structure, distributors may provide data feeds, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) or similar automated delivery solutions to client organizations with only limited entitlement controls. Through this program, NASDAQ offers a much simpler administration process for MDS distributors and subscribers, reducing the burden and cost of administration. Subscribers of MDS may use the information for internal purposes only and may not distribute the information outside of their organization. MDS presents opportunities for small and mid-size firms to achieve significant cost savings over the cost of data feeds. While both the MDS Administration Fee and MDS Subscriber Fee have not changed since their introduction in 2010, NASDAQ is changing these fees now to remain consistent with the revised direct access non-display fee to maintain price uniformity between these two methods of accessing nondisplay depth information.3 Similarly, the Exchange has not increased the FPGA Distributor Fee since its introduction in 2012. Nevertheless, both distributors and subscribers reap the benefits of NASDAQ’s constant focus on the performance and enhancements to these offerings. As such, NASDAQ recently completed a technology refresh to ensure that its data feeds continue to achieve a high level of performance and resiliency. The Exchange has also upgraded and refreshed its disaster recovery capabilities, adding to the $25,000 Per Distributor. 2,500 Per Distributor. 27,500 Per Distributor. [3,000 = 1 Subscriber. 3,500 = 2 Subscribers. 4,000 = 3 Subscribers]. 5,000 for the first Subscriber. 750[0] for each additional Subscriber. increased focus on redundancy and resiliency. 2. Statutory Basis The Exchange believes that the proposed rule change is consistent with the provisions of Section 6 of the Act,4 in general, and with Sections 6(b)(4) and 6(b)(5) of the Act,5 in particular, in that it provides an equitable allocation of reasonable fees among Subscribers and recipients of NASDAQ data and is not designed to permit unfair discrimination between them. NASDAQ’s proposal to increase the MDS Administration Fee, MDS Subscriber Fee and FPGA Distributor Fee is also consistent with the Act in that it reflects an equitable allocation of reasonable fees. The Commission has long recognized the fair and equitable and not unreasonably discriminatory nature of assessing different fees for distributors and professional and nonprofessional users of the same data. NASDAQ also believes it is equitable to assess a higher fee per professional user than to an ordinary non-professional user due to the enhanced flexibility, lower overall costs and value that it offers distributors. 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. 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.6 4 15 U.S.C. 78f. U.S.C. 78f(b)(4) and (5). 6 See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 51808 (June 9, 2005), 70 FR 37496 (June 29, 2005). 5 15 3 See SR–NASDAQ–2015–157 (filed December 18, 2015). PO 00000 Frm 00087 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 545 E:\FR\FM\06JAN1.SGM 06JAN1 mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES 546 Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 3 / Wednesday, January 6, 2016 / Notices 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. Level 2, NASDAQ TotalView and NASDAQ OpenView are precisely the sort of market data products that the Commission envisioned when it adopted Regulation NMS. 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) (‘‘NetCoalition I’’), 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.’ NetCoalition I, 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 agreed with the Commission’s conclusion that ‘‘Congress intended that ‘competitive forces should dictate the services and practices that constitute the U.S. national market system for trading equity securities.’ ’’ 7 The Court in NetCoalition I, while upholding the Commission’s conclusion that competitive forces may be relied upon to establish the fairness of prices, nevertheless concluded that the record in that case did not adequately support the Commission’s conclusions as to the competitive nature of the market for NYSE Arca’s data product at issue in that case. As explained below in NASDAQ’s Statement on Burden on Competition, however, NASDAQ believes that there is substantial evidence of competition in the marketplace for data that was not in the record in the NetCoalition I case, and that the Commission is entitled to rely upon such evidence in concluding fees are the product of competition, and therefore in accordance with the relevant statutory standards.8 7 NetCoalition I, at 535. should also be noted that Section 916 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (‘‘Dodd-Frank Act’’) has 8 It VerDate Sep<11>2014 17:32 Jan 05, 2016 Jkt 238001 Accordingly, any findings of the court with respect to that product may not be relevant to the product at issue in this filing. NASDAQ believes that the allocation of the proposed fee is fair and equitable in accordance with Section 6(b)(4) of the Act, and not unreasonably discriminatory in accordance with Section 6(b)(5) of the Act. As described above, the proposed fee is based on pricing conventions and distinctions that exist in NASDAQ’s current fee schedule. These distinctions are each based on principles of fairness and equity that have helped for many years to maintain fair, equitable, and not unreasonably discriminatory fees, and that apply with equal or greater force to the current proposal. As described in greater detail below, if NASDAQ has calculated improperly and the market deems the proposed fees to be unfair, inequitable, or unreasonably discriminatory, firms can discontinue the use of their data because the proposed product is entirely optional to all parties. Firms are not required to purchase data and NASDAQ is not required to make data available or to offer specific pricing alternatives for potential purchases. NASDAQ can discontinue offering a pricing alternative (as it has in the past) and firms can discontinue their use at any time and for any reason (as they often do), including due to their assessment of the reasonableness of fees charged. NASDAQ continues to establish and revise pricing policies aimed at increasing fairness and equitable allocation of fees among Subscribers. NASDAQ believes that periodically it must adjust the Subscriber fees to reflect market forces. NASDAQ believes it is an appropriate time to adjust this fee to more accurately reflect the investments made to enhance this product through capacity upgrades. This also reflects that the market for this information is highly competitive and continually evolves as products develop and change. B. Self-Regulatory Organization’s Statement on Burden on Competition The Exchange does not believe that the proposed rule change will result in any burden on competition that is not necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the Act, as amended. Notwithstanding its determination that amended paragraph (A) of Section 19(b)(3) of the Act, 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(3), to make it clear that all exchange fees, including fees for market data, may be filed by exchanges on an immediately effective basis. See also NetCoalition v. SEC, 715 F.3d 342 (D.C. Cir. 2013) (‘‘NetCoalition II’’) (finding no jurisdiction to review Commission’s nonsuspension of immediately effective fee changes). PO 00000 Frm 00088 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 the Commission may rely upon competition to establish fair and equitably allocated fees for market data, the NetCoalition 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. NASDAQ 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. Data products are valuable to many end Subscribers only insofar as they provide information that end Subscribers 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 (‘‘BD’’) 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 BD 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 BD will choose not to buy it. Moreover, as a BD chooses to direct fewer orders to a particular exchange, the value of the product to that BD decreases, for two reasons. First, the product will contain less information, because executions of the BD’s orders will not be reflected in it. Second, and perhaps more important, the product will be less valuable to that BD because it does not provide information about the venue to which it is directing its orders. Data from the competing venue E:\FR\FM\06JAN1.SGM 06JAN1 mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 3 / Wednesday, January 6, 2016 / Notices to which the BD is directing orders will become correspondingly more valuable. Thus, an 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’.’’ NetCoalition at 24. However, the existence of fierce competition for order flow implies a high degree of price sensitivity on the part of BDs with order flow, since they may readily reduce costs by directing orders toward the lowest-cost trading venues. A BD 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 BDs 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 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. NASDAQ pays rebates to attract orders, charges relatively low prices for market information and charges relatively high prices for accessing posted liquidity. Other platforms may choose a strategy of paying lower liquidity rebates to attract orders, setting relatively low prices for accessing posted liquidity, and setting relatively high prices for market information. Still others may VerDate Sep<11>2014 17:32 Jan 05, 2016 Jkt 238001 provide most data free of charge and rely exclusively on transaction fees to recover their costs. Finally, some platforms may incentivize use by providing opportunities for equity ownership, which may allow them to charge lower direct fees for executions and data. 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. Such regulation is unnecessary because an ‘‘excessive’’ price for one of the joint products will ultimately have to be reflected in lower prices for other products sold by the firm, or otherwise the firm will experience a loss in the volume of its sales that will be adverse to its overall profitability. In other words, an increase in the price of data will ultimately have to be accompanied by a decrease in the cost of executions, or the volume of both data and executions will fall. The level of competition and contestability in the market is evident in the numerous alternative venues that compete for order flow, including eleven SRO markets, as well as internalizing 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 TRFs compete to attract internalized transaction reports. It is common for BDs to further and exploit this competition by sending their order flow and transaction reports to multiple markets, rather than providing them all to a single market. Competitive markets for order flow, executions, and transaction reports provide pricing discipline for the inputs of proprietary data products. 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 or have announced plans to do so, including NASDAQ, NYSE, NYSE MKT, NYSE Arca, and BATS/ Direct Edge. 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 BDs’ production of proprietary data products. The potential sources of proprietary products are virtually limitless. Notably, the PO 00000 Frm 00089 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 547 potential sources of data include the BDs that submit trade reports to TRFs and that have the ability to consolidate and distribute their data without the involvement of FINRA or an exchangeoperated TRF. 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 NYSE 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 a core data product, an SRO proprietary product, and/or a non-SRO proprietary product, the data available in proprietary products is exponentially greater than the actual number of orders and transaction reports that exist in the marketplace. In addition to the competition and price discipline described above, the market for proprietary data products is also highly contestable because market entry is rapid, inexpensive, and profitable. The history of electronic trading is replete with examples of entrants that swiftly grew into some of the largest electronic trading platforms and proprietary data producers: Archipelago, Bloomberg Tradebook, Island, RediBook, Attain, TracECN, BATS Trading and BATS/Direct Edge. A proliferation of dark pools and other ATSs operate profitably with fragmentary shares of consolidated market volume. Regulation NMS, by deregulating the market for proprietary data, has increased the contestability of that market. While BDs have previously published their proprietary data individually, Regulation NMS encourages market data vendors and BDs to produce proprietary products cooperatively in a manner never before possible. Multiple market data vendors already have the capability to aggregate data and disseminate it on a profitable scale, including Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters. In Europe, Cinnober aggregates and disseminates data from over 40 brokers and multilateral trading facilities.9 In this environment, 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’.’’ NetCoalition I at 539. The existence of fierce competition for order flow implies a high degree of price sensitivity 9 See https://www.cinnober.com/boat-tradereporting. E:\FR\FM\06JAN1.SGM 06JAN1 548 Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 3 / Wednesday, January 6, 2016 / Notices on the part of BDs with order flow, since they may readily reduce costs by directing orders toward the lowest-cost trading venues. A BD 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. If a platform increases its market data fees, the change will affect the overall cost of doing business with the platform, and affected BDs will assess whether they can lower their trading costs by directing orders elsewhere and thereby lessening the need for the more expensive data. C. Self-Regulatory Organization’s Statement on Comments on the Proposed Rule Change Received From Members, Participants, or Others Written comments were neither solicited nor received. 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.10 At any time within 60 days of the filing of the proposed rule change, the Commission summarily may temporarily suspend such rule change if it appears to the Commission that such action is necessary or appropriate in the public interest, for the protection of investors, or otherwise in furtherance of the purposes of the Act. If the Commission takes such action, the Commission shall institute proceedings to determine whether the proposed rule should be approved or disapproved. Commission, 100 F Street NE., Washington, DC 20549–1090. All submissions should refer to File Number SR–NASDAQ–2015–158. 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 on official business days between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Copies of such filing also will be available for inspection and copying at the principal offices of 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– NASDAQ–2015–158, and should be submitted onor before January 27, 2016. For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated authority.11 Jill M. Peterson, Assistant Secretary. [FR Doc. 2015–33208 Filed 1–5–16; 8:45 am] IV. Solicitation of Comments Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views, and arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed rule change, as amended, is consistent with the Act. Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods: BILLING CODE 8011–01–P SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION [SEC File No. 270–149, OMB Control No. 3235–0130] mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES 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– NASDAQ–2015–158 on the subject line. Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request Upon Written Request, Copies Available From: Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of FOIA Services, 100 F Street NE., Washington, DC 20549–2736. Extension: Rule 17Ad–2(c), (d), and (h). Paper Comments • Send paper comments in triplicate to Secretary, Securities and Exchange 10 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(a)(ii). VerDate Sep<11>2014 17:32 Jan 05, 2016 Notice is hereby given that pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) (‘‘PRA’’), the 11 17 Jkt 238001 PO 00000 CFR 200.30–3(a)(12). Frm 00090 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 Securities and Exchange Commission (‘‘Commission’’) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (‘‘OMB’’) a request for approval of extension of the previously approved collection of information provided for in Rule 17Ad–2(c), (d), and (h), (17 CFR 240.17Ad–2(c), (d), and (h)), under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78a et seq.). Rule 17Ad–2(c),(d) and (h) enumerates the requirements with which registered transfer agents must comply to inform the Commission or the appropriate regulator of a transfer agent’s failure to meet the minimum performance standards set by the Commission rule by filing a notice. The Commission receives approximately 3 notices a year pursuant to Rule 17Ad–2(c), (d), and (h). The estimated annual time burden of these filings on respondents is minimal in view of: (a) The readily available nature of most of the information required to be included in the notice (since that information must be compiled and retained pursuant to other Commission rules); and (b) the summary fashion in which such information must be presented in the notice (most notices are one page or less in length). In light of the above, and based on the experience of the staff regarding the notices, the Commission staff estimates that, on average, most notices require approximately one-half hour to prepare. Thus, the Commission staff estimates that the industry-wide total time burden is approximately 1.5 hours. The retention period for the recordkeeping requirement under Rule 17Ad–2(c), (d), and (h) is not less than two years following the date the notice is submitted. The recordkeeping requirement under this rule is mandatory to assist the Commission in monitoring transfer agents who fail to meet the minimum performance standards set by the Commission rule. This rule does not involve the collection of confidential information. A transfer agent is not required to file under the rule unless it does not meet the minimum performance standards for turnaround, processing or forwarding items received for transfer during a month. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information under the PRA unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The public may view background documentation for this information collection at the following Web site: www.reginfo.gov. Comments should be directed to: (i) Desk Officer for the Securities and Exchange Commission, E:\FR\FM\06JAN1.SGM 06JAN1

Agencies

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 3 (Wednesday, January 6, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 544-548]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-33208]


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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-76797; File No. SR-NASDAQ-2015-158]


Self-Regulatory Organizations; The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC; 
Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change To 
Modify the Fees for Managed Data Solutions

December 30, 2015.
    Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 
(``Act''),\1\ and Rule 19b-4 thereunder,\2\ notice is hereby given that 
on December 18, 2015, The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC (``NASDAQ'') 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 NASDAQ. The Commission is publishing this 
notice to solicit comments on the proposed rule change from interested 
persons.
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    \1\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(1).
    \2\ 17 CFR 240.19b-4.
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I. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Terms of the 
Substance of the Proposed Rule Change

    NASDAQ proposes to modify the charges to be paid for Managed Data 
Solutions (``MDS''). While the changes proposed herein are effective 
upon filing, the Exchange has designated that the amendments be 
operative on January 1, 2016.
    The text of the proposed rule change is below. Proposed new 
language is italicized; proposed deletions are bracketed.

NASDAQ Stock Market Rules

Equity Rules

* * * * *

7026. Distribution Models

    (a) No change.
    (b) Managed Data Solutions
    The charges to be paid by Distributors and Subscribers of Managed 
Data Solutions products containing Nasdaq Depth data (non-display use 
only) shall be:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Fee schedule for managed data solutions                                   Price
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Managed Data Solution Administration Fee (for     $[1]2,500/mo Per Distributor.
 the right to offer Managed Data Solutions to
 client organizations).
Nasdaq Depth Data Professional Subscriber Fee     3[00]75/mo Per Subscriber.
 (Internal Use Only and includes TotalView,
 Level 2, OpenView).
Nasdaq Depth Data Non-Professional Subscriber     60/mo Per Subscriber.
 (Internal Use Only and includes TotalView,
 Level 2, OpenView).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    (c) Hardware-Based Delivery of Nasdaq Depth data
    (1) The charges to be paid by Distributors for processing Nasdaq 
Depth data sourced from a Nasdaq hardware-based market data format 
shall be:

[[Page 545]]



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hardware-Based delivery of Nasdaq depth data                              Monthly fee
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Only Distributor...................  $25,000 Per Distributor.
External Only Distributor...................  2,500 Per Distributor.
Internal and External Distributor...........  27,500 Per Distributor.
Managed Data Solution Administration Fee....  [3,000 = 1 Subscriber.
                                              3,500 = 2 Subscribers.
                                              4,000 = 3 Subscribers].
                                              5,000 for the first Subscriber.
                                              750[0] for each additional Subscriber.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    (2) No change.
    (3) No change.
* * * * *

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

    In its filing with the Commission, NASDAQ 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. NASDAQ 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 purpose of the proposed rule change is to increase the charges 
to be paid by distributors and subscribers of Managed Data Solutions 
products containing Nasdaq Depth-of-Book data. Nasdaq Depth-of-Book 
data is defined in Nasdaq Rule 7023 to include TotalView, OpenView, and 
NASDAQ Level 2 (collectively, ``Nasdaq Depth data''). Specifically, the 
Exchange proposes to increase the fee charged to distributors for the 
right to offer Managed Data Solutions to client organizations to $2,500 
per month per distributor (``MDS Administration Fee''), and the fee 
charged to professional subscribers to $375 per month per subscriber 
(``MDS Subscriber Fee''). This proposed rule change will not affect the 
pricing for non-professional subscribers.
    The Exchange also proposes to increase the administration fee 
charged to distributors for processing Nasdaq Depth data sourced from a 
Nasdaq hardware-based delivery option. This option uses field-
programmable gate array (``FPGA'') technology, and serves those 
customers requiring a predictable latency profile throughout the 
trading day. By taking advantage of hardware parallelism, FPGA 
technology is capable of processing more data packets during peak 
market conditions without the introduction of variable queuing latency. 
Specifically, the Exchange proposes to increase the tiered fee charged 
to distributors, which is based on the number of subscribers, to $5,000 
per month for the first subscriber, and then $750 per month for each 
additional subscriber (``FPGA Distributor Fee'').
    MDS is a data delivery option available to distributors of Nasdaq 
Depth data information. Under the MDS fee structure, distributors may 
provide data feeds, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) or 
similar automated delivery solutions to client organizations with only 
limited entitlement controls. Through this program, NASDAQ offers a 
much simpler administration process for MDS distributors and 
subscribers, reducing the burden and cost of administration.
    Subscribers of MDS may use the information for internal purposes 
only and may not distribute the information outside of their 
organization. MDS presents opportunities for small and mid-size firms 
to achieve significant cost savings over the cost of data feeds.
    While both the MDS Administration Fee and MDS Subscriber Fee have 
not changed since their introduction in 2010, NASDAQ is changing these 
fees now to remain consistent with the revised direct access non-
display fee to maintain price uniformity between these two methods of 
accessing non-display depth information.\3\ Similarly, the Exchange has 
not increased the FPGA Distributor Fee since its introduction in 2012. 
Nevertheless, both distributors and subscribers reap the benefits of 
NASDAQ's constant focus on the performance and enhancements to these 
offerings. As such, NASDAQ recently completed a technology refresh to 
ensure that its data feeds continue to achieve a high level of 
performance and resiliency. The Exchange has also upgraded and 
refreshed its disaster recovery capabilities, adding to the increased 
focus on redundancy and resiliency.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \3\ See SR-NASDAQ-2015-157 (filed December 18, 2015).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Statutory Basis
    The Exchange believes that the proposed rule change is consistent 
with the provisions of Section 6 of the Act,\4\ in general, and with 
Sections 6(b)(4) and 6(b)(5) of the Act,\5\ in particular, in that it 
provides an equitable allocation of reasonable fees among Subscribers 
and recipients of NASDAQ data and is not designed to permit unfair 
discrimination between them. NASDAQ's proposal to increase the MDS 
Administration Fee, MDS Subscriber Fee and FPGA Distributor Fee is also 
consistent with the Act in that it reflects an equitable allocation of 
reasonable fees. The Commission has long recognized the fair and 
equitable and not unreasonably discriminatory nature of assessing 
different fees for distributors and professional and non-professional 
users of the same data. NASDAQ also believes it is equitable to assess 
a higher fee per professional user than to an ordinary non-professional 
user due to the enhanced flexibility, lower overall costs and value 
that it offers distributors.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \4\ 15 U.S.C. 78f.
    \5\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(4) and (5).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    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.
    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.\6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \6\ See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 51808 (June 9, 
2005), 70 FR 37496 (June 29, 2005).


[[Page 546]]


---------------------------------------------------------------------------

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. Level 2, NASDAQ TotalView and 
NASDAQ OpenView are precisely the sort of market data products that the 
Commission envisioned when it adopted Regulation NMS.
    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) (``NetCoalition I''), 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.' 
NetCoalition I, 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 agreed with the 
Commission's conclusion that ``Congress intended that `competitive 
forces should dictate the services and practices that constitute the 
U.S. national market system for trading equity securities.' '' \7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \7\ NetCoalition I, at 535.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Court in NetCoalition I, while upholding the Commission's 
conclusion that competitive forces may be relied upon to establish the 
fairness of prices, nevertheless concluded that the record in that case 
did not adequately support the Commission's conclusions as to the 
competitive nature of the market for NYSE Arca's data product at issue 
in that case. As explained below in NASDAQ's Statement on Burden on 
Competition, however, NASDAQ believes that there is substantial 
evidence of competition in the marketplace for data that was not in the 
record in the NetCoalition I case, and that the Commission is entitled 
to rely upon such evidence in concluding fees are the product of 
competition, and therefore in accordance with the relevant statutory 
standards.\8\ Accordingly, any findings of the court with respect to 
that product may not be relevant to the product at issue in this 
filing.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \8\ It should also be noted that Section 916 of the Dodd-Frank 
Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (``Dodd-Frank 
Act'') has amended paragraph (A) of Section 19(b)(3) of the Act, 15 
U.S.C. 78s(b)(3), to make it clear that all exchange fees, including 
fees for market data, may be filed by exchanges on an immediately 
effective basis. See also NetCoalition v. SEC, 715 F.3d 342 (D.C. 
Cir. 2013) (``NetCoalition II'') (finding no jurisdiction to review 
Commission's non-suspension of immediately effective fee changes).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    NASDAQ believes that the allocation of the proposed fee is fair and 
equitable in accordance with Section 6(b)(4) of the Act, and not 
unreasonably discriminatory in accordance with Section 6(b)(5) of the 
Act. As described above, the proposed fee is based on pricing 
conventions and distinctions that exist in NASDAQ's current fee 
schedule. These distinctions are each based on principles of fairness 
and equity that have helped for many years to maintain fair, equitable, 
and not unreasonably discriminatory fees, and that apply with equal or 
greater force to the current proposal.
    As described in greater detail below, if NASDAQ has calculated 
improperly and the market deems the proposed fees to be unfair, 
inequitable, or unreasonably discriminatory, firms can discontinue the 
use of their data because the proposed product is entirely optional to 
all parties. Firms are not required to purchase data and NASDAQ is not 
required to make data available or to offer specific pricing 
alternatives for potential purchases. NASDAQ can discontinue offering a 
pricing alternative (as it has in the past) and firms can discontinue 
their use at any time and for any reason (as they often do), including 
due to their assessment of the reasonableness of fees charged. NASDAQ 
continues to establish and revise pricing policies aimed at increasing 
fairness and equitable allocation of fees among Subscribers.
    NASDAQ believes that periodically it must adjust the Subscriber 
fees to reflect market forces. NASDAQ believes it is an appropriate 
time to adjust this fee to more accurately reflect the investments made 
to enhance this product through capacity upgrades. This also reflects 
that the market for this information is highly competitive and 
continually evolves as products develop and change.

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

    The Exchange does not believe that the proposed rule change will 
result in any burden on competition that is not necessary or 
appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the Act, as amended. 
Notwithstanding its determination that the Commission may rely upon 
competition to establish fair and equitably allocated fees for market 
data, the NetCoalition 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. NASDAQ 
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. Data products 
are valuable to many end Subscribers only insofar as they provide 
information that end Subscribers 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 
(``BD'') 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 BD 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 BD will choose not to buy it. 
Moreover, as a BD chooses to direct fewer orders to a particular 
exchange, the value of the product to that BD decreases, for two 
reasons. First, the product will contain less information, because 
executions of the BD's orders will not be reflected in it. Second, and 
perhaps more important, the product will be less valuable to that BD 
because it does not provide information about the venue to which it is 
directing its orders. Data from the competing venue

[[Page 547]]

to which the BD is directing orders will become correspondingly more 
valuable.
    Thus, an 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'.'' NetCoalition at 
24. However, the existence of fierce competition for order flow implies 
a high degree of price sensitivity on the part of BDs with order flow, 
since they may readily reduce costs by directing orders toward the 
lowest-cost trading venues. A BD 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 BDs 
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 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. NASDAQ pays rebates to attract orders, charges relatively 
low prices for market information and charges relatively high prices 
for accessing posted liquidity. Other platforms may choose a strategy 
of paying lower liquidity rebates to attract orders, setting relatively 
low prices for accessing posted liquidity, and setting relatively high 
prices for market information. Still others may provide most data free 
of charge and rely exclusively on transaction fees to recover their 
costs. Finally, some platforms may incentivize use by providing 
opportunities for equity ownership, which may allow them to charge 
lower direct fees for executions and data.
    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. Such regulation is unnecessary because an ``excessive'' price 
for one of the joint products will ultimately have to be reflected in 
lower prices for other products sold by the firm, or otherwise the firm 
will experience a loss in the volume of its sales that will be adverse 
to its overall profitability. In other words, an increase in the price 
of data will ultimately have to be accompanied by a decrease in the 
cost of executions, or the volume of both data and executions will 
fall.
    The level of competition and contestability in the market is 
evident in the numerous alternative venues that compete for order flow, 
including eleven SRO markets, as well as internalizing 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 TRFs compete to attract internalized transaction 
reports. It is common for BDs to further and exploit this competition 
by sending their order flow and transaction reports to multiple 
markets, rather than providing them all to a single market. Competitive 
markets for order flow, executions, and transaction reports provide 
pricing discipline for the inputs of proprietary data products.
    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 or have announced plans to do so, 
including NASDAQ, NYSE, NYSE MKT, NYSE Arca, and BATS/Direct Edge.
    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 BDs' 
production of proprietary data products. The potential sources of 
proprietary products are virtually limitless. Notably, the potential 
sources of data include the BDs that submit trade reports to TRFs and 
that have the ability to consolidate and distribute their data without 
the involvement of FINRA or an exchange-operated TRF.
    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 NYSE 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 a core data product, 
an SRO proprietary product, and/or a non-SRO proprietary product, the 
data available in proprietary products is exponentially greater than 
the actual number of orders and transaction reports that exist in the 
marketplace.
    In addition to the competition and price discipline described 
above, the market for proprietary data products is also highly 
contestable because market entry is rapid, inexpensive, and profitable. 
The history of electronic trading is replete with examples of entrants 
that swiftly grew into some of the largest electronic trading platforms 
and proprietary data producers: Archipelago, Bloomberg Tradebook, 
Island, RediBook, Attain, TracECN, BATS Trading and BATS/Direct Edge. A 
proliferation of dark pools and other ATSs operate profitably with 
fragmentary shares of consolidated market volume.
    Regulation NMS, by deregulating the market for proprietary data, 
has increased the contestability of that market. While BDs have 
previously published their proprietary data individually, Regulation 
NMS encourages market data vendors and BDs to produce proprietary 
products cooperatively in a manner never before possible. Multiple 
market data vendors already have the capability to aggregate data and 
disseminate it on a profitable scale, including Bloomberg and Thomson 
Reuters. In Europe, Cinnober aggregates and disseminates data from over 
40 brokers and multilateral trading facilities.\9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \9\ See https://www.cinnober.com/boat-trade-reporting.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In this environment, 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'.'' NetCoalition I at 539. The existence of 
fierce competition for order flow implies a high degree of price 
sensitivity

[[Page 548]]

on the part of BDs with order flow, since they may readily reduce costs 
by directing orders toward the lowest-cost trading venues. A BD 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. If a platform increases its market data fees, the 
change will affect the overall cost of doing business with the 
platform, and affected BDs will assess whether they can lower their 
trading costs by directing orders elsewhere and thereby lessening the 
need for the more expensive data.

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

    Written comments were neither solicited nor received.

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.\10\ At any time within 60 days of the 
filing of the proposed rule change, the Commission summarily may 
temporarily suspend such rule change if it appears to the Commission 
that such action is necessary or appropriate in the public interest, 
for the protection of investors, or otherwise in furtherance of the 
purposes of the Act. If the Commission takes such action, the 
Commission shall institute proceedings to determine whether the 
proposed rule should be approved or disapproved.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \10\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(a)(ii).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

IV. Solicitation of Comments

    Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views, and 
arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed rule 
change, as amended, 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-NASDAQ-2015-158 on the subject line.

Paper Comments

     Send paper comments in triplicate to Secretary, Securities 
and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street NE., Washington, DC 20549-1090.

All submissions should refer to File Number SR-NASDAQ-2015-158. 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 on official business 
days between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Copies of such 
filing also will be available for inspection and copying at the 
principal offices of 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-NASDAQ-2015-158, and should be submitted on or before 
January 27, 2016.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \11\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(12).

    For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, 
pursuant to delegated authority.\11\
Jill M. Peterson,
Assistant Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2015-33208 Filed 1-5-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 8011-01-P
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