Self-Regulatory Organizations; Cboe BYX Exchange, Inc.; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change Relating To Amend the Fee Schedule, 15234-15238 [2020-05377]
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Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 52 / Tuesday, March 17, 2020 / Notices
Commission’s rules and regulations in
10 CFR Chapter I, which are set forth in
the license amendment.
A notice of consideration of issuance
of amendment to facility operating
license or COL, as applicable, proposed
no significant hazards consideration
determination, and opportunity for a
hearing in connection with these
actions, was published in the Federal
Register on December 17, 2019 (84 FR
68953). No comments were received
during the 30-day comment period.
The Commission has determined that
these amendments satisfy the criteria for
categorical exclusion in accordance
with 10 CFR 51.22. Therefore, pursuant
to 10 CFR 51.22(b), no environmental
impact statement or environmental
assessment need be prepared for these
amendments.
IV. Conclusion
Using the reasons set forth in the
combined safety evaluation, the staff
granted the exemptions and issued the
amendments that SNC requested on
October 31, 2019. The exemptions and
amendments were issued on March 6,
2020, as part of a combined package to
SNC (ADAMS Accession No.
ML20044C903).
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Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 13th day
of March 2020.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 11th day
of March, 2020.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Victor E. Hall,
Chief, Vogtle Project Office, Office of Nuclear
Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2020–05386 Filed 3–16–20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590–01–P
NUCLEAR REGULATORY
COMMISSION
[NRC–2020–0001]
Sunshine Act Meetings
Weeks of March 16, 23,
30, April 6, 13, 20, 2020.
PLACE: Commissioners’ Conference
Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville,
Maryland.
STATUS: Public.
TIME AND DATE:
Week of March 16, 2020
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Thursday, April 2, 2020
There are no meetings scheduled for
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For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Denise L. McGovern,
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[FR Doc. 2020–05602 Filed 3–13–20; 11:15 am]
BILLING CODE 7590–01–P
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION
[Release No. 34–88359; File No. SR–
CboeBYX–2020–008]
Self-Regulatory Organizations; Cboe
BYX Exchange, Inc.; Notice of Filing
and Immediate Effectiveness of a
Proposed Rule Change Relating To
Amend the Fee Schedule
March 11, 2020.
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 March 2,
2020, Cboe BYX Exchange, Inc. (the
‘‘Exchange’’ or ‘‘BYX’’) filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission
(the ‘‘Commission’’) the proposed rule
change as described in Items I, II, and
III below, which Items have been
prepared by the Exchange. 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
Cboe BYX Exchange, Inc. (the
‘‘Exchange’’ or ‘‘BZX’’) is filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission
(‘‘Commission’’) a proposed rule change
to amend the fee schedule. The text of
the proposed rule change is provided in
Exhibit 5.
The text of the proposed rule change
is also available on the Exchange’s
website (https://markets.cboe.com/us/
equities/regulation/rule_filings/byx/), at
the Exchange’s Office of the Secretary,
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
Exchange has prepared summaries, set
forth in sections A, B, and C below, of
1 15
2 17
U.S.C. 78s(b)(1).
CFR 240.19b–4.
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the most significant aspects of such
statements.
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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
fee schedule in connection with its
Remove Volume Tiers, effective March
2, 2020.
The Exchange first notes that it
operates in a highly-competitive market
in which market participants can
readily direct order flow to competing
venues if they deem fee levels at a
particular venue to be excessive or
incentives to be insufficient. More
specifically, the Exchange is only one of
13 registered equities exchanges, as well
as a number of alternative trading
systems and other off-exchange venues
that do not have similar self-regulatory
responsibilities under the Exchange Act,
to which market participants may direct
their order flow. Based on publicly
available information,3 no single
registered equities exchange has more
than 17% of the market share. Thus, in
such a low-concentrated and highly
competitive market, no single equities
exchange possesses significant pricing
power in the execution of order flow.
The Exchange in particular operates a
‘‘Taker-Maker’’ model whereby it pays
credits to members that remove
liquidity and assesses fees to those that
add liquidity. The Exchange’s Fees
Schedule sets forth the standard rebates
and rates applied per share for orders
that provide and remove liquidity,
respectively. Particularly, for securities
at or above $1.00, the Exchange
provides a standard rebate of $0.0005
per share for orders that remove
liquidity and assesses a fee of $0.0019
per share for orders that add liquidity.
The Exchange believes that the evershifting market share among the
exchanges from month to month
demonstrates that market participants
can shift order flow, or discontinue to
reduce use of certain categories of
products, in response to fee changes.
Accordingly, competitive forces
constrain the Exchange’s transaction
fees, and market participants can readily
trade on competing venues if they deem
pricing levels at those other venues to
be more favorable. In response to the
competitive environment, the Exchange
also offers tiered pricing which provides
Members opportunities to qualify for
3 See Cboe Global Markets, U.S. Equities Market
Volume Summary, Month-to-Date (February 25,
2020), available at https://markets.cboe.com/us/
equities/market_statistics/.
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higher rebates or reduced fees where
certain volume criteria and thresholds
are met. Tiered pricing provides
incremental incentives for Members to
strive for higher or different tier levels
by offering increasingly higher
discounts or enhanced benefits for
satisfying increasingly more stringent
criteria or different criteria.
Pursuant to footnote 1 of the Fees
Schedule, the Exchange currently offers
Remove Volume Tiers (tiers 6 through 9)
that provide Members an opportunity to
receive an enhanced rebate from the
standard fee assessment for liquidity
removing orders that yield fee codes
‘‘BB’’,4 ‘‘N’’ 5 and ‘‘W’’.6 The Remove
Volume Tiers currently offer four
different tiers that vary in levels of
criteria difficulty and incentive
opportunities in which Members may
qualify for enhanced rebates for such
orders. For example, Tier 6 currently
provides an enhanced rebate of $0.0015
for Members who have an ADV 7 of
greater than or equal to 0.08% of the
TCV,8 and an ADAV 9 of greater than or
equal to 500,000 shares. The Exchange
notes that these tiers are designed to
encourage Members to increase their
order flow, adding and/or removing
orders, in order to receive an enhanced
rebate on their liquidity removing
orders.
Specifically, the Exchange proposes to
amend Remove Volume Tier 8. Pursuant
to current Tier 8, a Member may receive
an enhanced rebate of $0.0017 for
qualifying, liquidity removing orders
(i.e. yielding fee code BB, N, or W) if
that Member has a Step-Up Remove
TCV 10 from December 2017 ≥ 0.10%,
and has an ADAV ≥ 0.30% of the TCV.
The Exchange proposes to amend Tier 8
so that a Member may receive an
enhanced rebate of $0.0018 for
qualifying, liquidity removing orders if
4 Appended to displayed orders that removes
liquidity from BYX (Tape B), and offered a rebate
of $0.00050.
5 Appended to displayed orders that remove
liquidity from BYX (Tape C), and offered a rebate
of $0.00050.
6 Appended to displayed orders that remove
liquidity from BYX (Tape A), and assessed a fee of
$0.00050.
7 ‘‘ADV’’ means average daily volume calculated
as the number of shares added or removed,
combined, per day. ADV is calculated on a monthly
basis.
8 ‘‘TCV’’ means total consolidated volume
calculated as the volume reported by all exchanges
and trade reporting facilities to a consolidated
transaction reporting plan for the month for which
the fees apply.
9 ‘‘ADAV’’ means average daily volume calculated
as the number of shares added per day. ADAV is
calculated on a monthly basis.
10 ‘‘Step-Up Remove TCV’’ means remove ADV as
a percentage of TCV in the relevant baseline month
subtracted from current remove ADV as a
percentage of TCV.
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15235
that Member has a Step-Up Remove
TCV from February 2020 that is greater
than or equal to 0.05%. The proposed
criteria change is designed to
incentivize Members to increase their
relative liquidity taking order flow each
month over a predetermined baseline
(as proposed, from February 2020) in
order to receive an enhanced rebate on
their liquidity removing orders, by
making Tier 8 criteria easier to achieve
and increasing the enhanced rebate
provided under such tier. Instead of
meeting two unique criteria to receive
the enhanced rebate, the proposed
change narrows Tier 8 to just one
criterion with a lower Step-Up Remove
TCV threshold (as well as updates the
month from which this criterion is
measured). As a result of the proposed
ease in criteria coupled with the
increased enhanced rebate, Members
will have an additional opportunity to
receive an enhanced rebate by
submitting liquidity removing order and
will be further incentivized to submit
liquidity removing order flow. An
increase in liquidity executing orders
would, in turn, incentivize liquidity
adding order flow to take advantage of
the increase in execution opportunities,
thereby contributing to deeper, more
liquid markets and price discovery. The
Exchange believes that this would
overall benefit all Members by
contributing towards a robust and wellbalanced market ecosystem. The
Exchange notes that Tier 8, as amended,
will continue to be available to all
Members and is competitively
achievable for all Members that submit
liquidity removing order flow, in that,
all firms that submit the requisite order
flow could compete to meet the tier.
The Exchange also proposes to
eliminate Remove Volume Tier 9, which
currently provides that a Member may
receive an enhanced rebate of $0.0017
for qualifying, liquidity removing orders
if that Member has a Step-Up Remove
TCV from January 2018 ≥ 0.30%, and
has a remove ADV ≥ 0.70% of the TCV.
The Exchange proposes to eliminate
Tier 9 because no Members have
achieved this tier in some months.
2. Statutory Basis
The Exchange believes that the
proposed rule change is consistent with
the objectives of Section 6 of the Act,11
in general, and furthers the objectives of
Section 6(b)(4),12 in particular, as it is
designed to provide for the equitable
allocation of reasonable dues, fees and
other charges among its Members and
issuers and other persons using its
11 15
12 15
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U.S.C. 78f.
U.S.C. 78f(b)(4).
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facilities. The Exchange also believes
that the proposed rule change is
consistent with the objectives of Section
6(b)(5) 13 requirements that the rules of
an exchange be designed to prevent
fraudulent and manipulative acts and
practices, to promote just and equitable
principles of trade, to foster cooperation
and coordination with persons engaged
in regulating, clearing, settling,
processing information with respect to,
and facilitating transactions in
securities, to remove impediments to
and perfect the mechanism of a free and
open market and a national market
system, and, in general, to protect
investors and the public interest, and,
particularly, is not designed to permit
unfair discrimination between
customers, issuers, brokers, or dealers.
The Exchange operates in a highlycompetitive market in which market
participants can readily direct order
flow to competing venues if they deem
fee levels at a particular venue to be
excessive or incentives to be
insufficient. The proposed rule change
reflects a competitive pricing structure
designed to incentivize market
participants to direct their order flow to
the Exchange, which the Exchange
believes would enhance market quality
to the benefit of all Members.
In particular, the Exchange believes
the proposed tier is reasonable because
it restructures an opportunity for
Members to receive an enhanced rebate
by making it easier to reach the
proposed threshold by means of
liquidity removing orders. The
Exchange notes that relative volumebased incentives and discounts have
been widely adopted by exchanges,14
including the Exchange,15 and are
reasonable, equitable and nondiscriminatory because they are open to
all members on an equal basis and
provide additional benefits or discounts
that are reasonably related to (i) the
value to an exchange’s market quality
and (ii) associated higher levels of
market activity, such as higher levels of
liquidity provision and/or growth
patterns. Additionally, as noted above,
the Exchange operates in highly
13 15
U.S.C. 78f.(b)(5).
e.g., The Nasdaq BX, Inc. Rules, Equity 7
Pricing Schedule, Sec. 118(a), which generally
provides credits to members for adding and/or
removing liquidity that reaches certain thresholds
of Consolidated Volume; and Cboe EDGA U.S.
Equities Exchange Fee Schedule, Footnote 7, Add/
Remove Volume Tiers, which provides similar
incentives for liquidity removing orders.
15 See generally, Cboe BYX U.S. Equities
Exchange Fee Schedule, Footnotes 1 and 2, Add/
Remove Volume and Step-Up tiers provide
incentives for volume adding and/or removing
orders and for criteria based on Step-Up Add TCV,
respectively.
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14 See
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competitive market. The Exchange is
only one of several equity venues to
which market participants may direct
their order flow, and it represents a
small percentage of the overall market.
It is also only one of several taker-maker
exchanges. Competing equity exchanges
offer similar tiered pricing structures to
that of the Exchange, including
schedules of rebates and fees that apply
based upon members achieving certain
volume and/or growth thresholds. These
competing pricing schedules, moreover,
are presently comparable to those that
the Exchange provides, including the
pricing of comparable tiers.16
Moreover, the Exchange believes the
proposed modification to increase the
enhanced rebate and ease the criteria
under Remove Volume Tier 8, by
removing the ADAV as a percentage of
TCV threshold component and
decreasing the Step-Up Remove TCV
threshold (the proposed change also
updates the month by which the StepUp component is measured), is a
reasonable means to further incentivize
Members to increase their remove
volume order flow to the Exchange by
encouraging those Members who could
not achieve the tier previously to
increase their remove volume by a
modest amount since February 2020 to
receive the tier’s increased rebate. As
such, adopting criteria based on a
Member’s removing orders will
encourage Members executing on the
Exchange to increase transactions and
provide increased execution
opportunities, in turn, incentivizing
liquidity providing Members to take
such increase execution opportunities
and provide increased liquidity and
price transparency on the Exchange.
The Exchange believes that these
increases benefit all Members by
enhancing market quality and
contributing towards a robust and wellbalanced market ecosystem. Increased
overall order flow benefits all investors
by deepening the Exchange’s liquidity
pool, potentially providing even greater
execution incentives and opportunities,
offering additional flexibility for all
investors to enjoy cost savings,
supporting the quality of price
discovery, promoting market
transparency and improving investor
protection. The proposed increased
enhanced rebate amount also does not
represent a significant departure from
the enhanced rebates currently offered
under the Exchange’s existing Remove
16 See supra note 14. BX offers credits between
$0.0029 and $0.0014 per share for liquidity
removing orders (substantially similar to those
rebates which the Exchange proposes) depending
on different criteria levels achieved.
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Volume Tiers (tier 6 offers an enhanced
rebate of $0.0015 and tier 7 an enhanced
rebate of $0.0018). The proposed
amended tier merely provides and
additional opportunity for Members
submitting liquidity taking orders to
achieve an enhanced rebate. In addition
to this, the Exchange believes it is
reasonable to remove Tier 9 from the
Fee Schedule as no Members have
achieved such tier in recent months. If
the Exchange wishes to implement
additional opportunities to meet
different tier criteria within the Remove
Volume Tiers it may seek to do so by
submitting a rule filing at a later date.
The Exchange believes that the
proposal represents an equitable
allocation of rebates and is not unfairly
discriminatory because all Members
will continue to be eligible for Remove
Volume Tier 8 as amended, and will
have the opportunity to meet the tier’s
criteria and would receive the proposed
increased enhanced rebate if such
criteria is met. Without having a view of
activity on other markets and offexchange venues, the Exchange has no
way of knowing whether this proposed
rule change would definitely result in
any Members qualifying for this tier.
While the Exchange has no way of
predicting with certainty how the
proposed tier will impact Member
activity, the Exchange anticipates that at
least four Members will be able to
compete for and reach the proposed tier.
Accordingly, the Exchange believes the
proposed criteria modification is
reasonably designed as an incentive to
any and all Members interested in
meeting the tier criteria to submit
additional displayed order flow to
achieve the proposed discount. The
Exchange anticipates that these will
include multiple Member types,
including wholesale firms (i.e., brokerdealers that function to primarily make
markets for retail orders) as well as
proprietary firms, each providing
distinct types of order flow to the
Exchange to the benefit of all market
participants. For example, increased
wholesale firm order flow provides
more trading opportunities for retail
customers, which in turn attracts Market
Makers. Increased Market Maker activity
facilitates tighter spreads which
potentially increases order flow from
other market participants.
Further, the proposed elimination of
Tier 9 represents an equitable allocation
of fees and is not unfairly
discriminatory because it will equally
remove the enhanced rebate opportunity
in Tier 9 for all Members. The Exchange
also notes that the proposed elimination
of Tier 9 will not adversely impact any
Member’s pricing or their ability to
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qualify for existing enhanced rebates
(note that, the proposed enhanced
rebate in Tier 8 will be higher than the
rebate offered by Tier 9) or reduced fee
tiers. Likewise, should a Member not
meet the proposed criteria in Tier 8, the
Member will merely not receive the
enhanced rebate proposed in Tier 8 and
still would have the opportunity to meet
other criteria for enhanced rebates and
reduced fees. Furthermore, the proposed
rate in Tier 8 would uniformly apply to
all Members that meet the required
criteria under the modified tier.
B. Self-Regulatory Organization’s
Statement on Burden on Competition
The Exchange does not believe that
the proposed rule change will impose
any burden on intramarket or
intermarket competition that is not
necessary or appropriate in furtherance
of the purposes of the Act. Rather, as
discussed above, the Exchange believes
that the proposed change would
encourage the submission of additional
order flow to a public exchange, thereby
promoting market depth, execution
incentives and enhanced execution
opportunities, as well as price discovery
and transparency for all Members. As a
result, the Exchange believes that the
proposed change furthers the
Commission’s goal in adopting
Regulation NMS of fostering
competition among orders, which
promotes ‘‘more efficient pricing of
individual stocks for all types of orders,
large and small.’’ 17
The Exchange believes the proposed
rule change does not impose any burden
on intramarket competition that is not
necessary or appropriate in furtherance
of the purposes of the Act. Particularly,
the proposed change applies to all
Members equally in that all Members
are eligible for the proposed tier, have
a reasonable opportunity to meet the
tier’s criteria and will all receive the
proposed fee rate if such criteria is met.
Additionally the proposed change is
designed to attract additional order flow
to the Exchange. The Exchange believes
that the modified tier criteria would
incentivize market participants to direct
liquidity removing order flow to the
Exchange and, as a result, increase
execution opportunities, which would
further incentivize the provision of
liquidity and continued order flow and
improve price transparency on the
Exchange. Greater overall order flow
and pricing transparency benefits all
market participants on the Exchange by
generally providing more trading
opportunities, enhancing market
quality, and continuing to encourage
Members to send orders, thereby
contributing towards a robust and wellbalanced market ecosystem, which
benefits all market participants.
Next, the Exchange believes the
proposed rule change does not impose
any burden on intermarket competition
that is not necessary or appropriate in
furtherance of the purposes of the Act.
As previously discussed, the Exchange
operates in a highly competitive market.
Members have numerous alternative
venues that they may participate on and
direct their order flow, including 12
other equities exchanges and offexchange venues and alternative trading
systems. Additionally, the Exchange
represents a small percentage of the
overall market. Based on publicly
available information, no single equities
exchange has more than 17% of the
market share.18 Therefore, no exchange
possesses significant pricing power in
the execution of order flow. Indeed,
participants can readily choose to send
their orders to other exchange and offexchange venues if they deem fee levels
at those other venues to be more
favorable. Moreover, the Commission
has repeatedly expressed its preference
for competition over regulatory
intervention in determining prices,
products, and services in the securities
markets. Specifically, in Regulation
NMS, the Commission highlighted the
importance of market forces in
determining prices and SRO revenues
and, also, recognized that current
regulation of the market system ‘‘has
been remarkably successful in
promoting market competition in its
broader forms that are most important to
investors and listed companies.’’ 19 The
fact that this market is competitive has
also long been recognized by the courts.
In NetCoalition v. Securities and
Exchange Commission, the D.C. Circuit
stated as follows: ‘‘[n]o one disputes
that competition for order flow is
‘fierce.’ . . . As the SEC explained, ‘[i]n
the U.S. national market system, buyers
and sellers of securities, and the brokerdealers that act as their order-routing
agents, have a wide range of choices of
where to route orders for execution’;
[and] ‘no exchange can afford to take its
market share percentages for granted’
because ‘no exchange possesses a
monopoly, regulatory or otherwise, in
the execution of order flow from broker
dealers’. . . .’’. 20 Accordingly, the
supra note 3.
Securities Exchange Act Release No. 51808
(June 9, 2005), 70 FR 37496, 37499 (June 29, 2005).
20 NetCoalition v. SEC, 615 F.3d 525, 539 (DC Cir.
2010) (quoting Securities Exchange Act Release No.
Exchange Act Release No. 51808, 70
FR 37495, 37498–99 (June 29, 2005) (S7–10–04)
(Final Rule).
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Exchange does not believe its proposed
fee change imposes any burden on
competition that is not necessary or
appropriate in furtherance of the
purposes of the Act.
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)
of the Act 21 and paragraph (f) of Rule
19b–4 22 thereunder. 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 will institute proceedings
to determine whether the proposed rule
change 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–
CboeBYX–2020–008 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–CboeBYX–2020–008. This
file number should be included on the
subject line if email is used. To help the
Commission process and review your
18 See
19 See
17 Securities
15237
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59039 (December 2, 2008), 73 FR 74770, 74782–83
(December 9, 2008) (SR–NYSEArca–2006–21)).
21 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(A).
22 17 CFR 240.19b–4(f).
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Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 52 / Tuesday, March 17, 2020 / Notices
comments more efficiently, please use
only one method. The Commission will
post all comments on the Commission’s
internet website (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 website 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.
Persons submitting comments are
cautioned that we do not redact or edit
personal identifying information from
comment submissions. All submissions
should refer to File Number SR–
CboeBYX–2020–008 and should be
submitted on or before April 7, 2020.
For the Commission, by the Division of
Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated
authority.23
J. Matthew DeLesDernier,
Assistant Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2020–05377 Filed 3–16–20; 8:45 am]
khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
BILLING CODE 8011–01–P
23 17
17:32 Mar 16, 2020
approves and declares effective the
Plan.
[Release No. 34–88366; File No. 4–618]
I. Introduction
Section 19(g)(1) of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934 (‘‘Act’’),2 among
other things, requires every selfregulatory organization (‘‘SRO’’)
registered as either a national securities
exchange or national securities
association to examine for, and enforce
compliance by, its members and persons
associated with its members with the
Act, the rules and regulations
thereunder, and the SRO’s own rules,
unless the SRO is relieved of this
responsibility pursuant to Section 17(d)
or Section 19(g)(2) of the Act.3 Without
this relief, the statutory obligation of
each individual SRO could result in a
pattern of multiple examinations of
broker-dealers that maintain
memberships in more than one SRO
(‘‘Common Members’’). Such regulatory
duplication would add unnecessary
expenses for common members and
their SROs.
Section 17(d)(1) of the Act 4 was
intended, in part, to eliminate
unnecessary multiple examinations and
regulatory duplication.5 With respect to
a common member, Section 17(d)(1)
authorizes the Commission, by rule or
order, to relieve an SRO of the
responsibility to receive regulatory
reports, to examine for and enforce
compliance with applicable statutes,
rules, and regulations, or to perform
other specified regulatory functions.
To implement Section 17(d)(1), the
Commission adopted two rules: Rule
17d–1 and Rule 17d–2 under the Act.6
Rule 17d–1 authorizes the Commission
to name a single SRO as the designated
examining authority (‘‘DEA’’) to
examine common members for
compliance with the financial
responsibility requirements imposed by
the Act, or by Commission or SRO
rules.7 When an SRO has been named as
a common member’s DEA, all other
SROs to which the common member
belongs are relieved of the responsibility
to examine the firm for compliance with
the applicable financial responsibility
rules. On its face, Rule 17d–1 deals only
with an SRO’s obligations to enforce
member compliance with financial
Program for Allocation of Regulatory
Responsibilities Pursuant to Rule 17d–
2; Order Approving and Declaring
Effective a Proposed Amendment to
the Plan for the Allocation of
Regulatory Responsibilities Between
Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc., Cboe BYX
Exchange, Inc., BOX Exchange LLC,
Cboe Exchange, Inc., Cboe C2
Exchange, Inc., NYSE Chicago, Inc.,
Cboe EDGA Exchange, Inc., Cboe
EDGX Exchange, Inc., Financial
Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc.,
Nasdaq ISE, LLC, Nasdaq GEMX, LLC,
Nasdaq MRX, LLC, Investors Exchange
LLC, Miami International Securities
Exchange, LLC, MIAX PEARL, LLC,
MIAX Emerald, LLC, The Nasdaq Stock
Market LLC, Nasdaq BX, Inc., Nasdaq
PHLX LLC, NYSE National, Inc., New
York Stock Exchange LLC, NYSE
American LLC, NYSE Arca, Inc., and
Long-Term Stock Exchange, Inc.
Concerning Covered Regulation NMS
and Consolidated Audit Trail Rules
March 12, 2020.
On February 3, 2020, Cboe BZX
Exchange, Inc. (‘‘BZX’’), Cboe BYX
Exchange, Inc. (‘‘BATS Y’’), BOX
Exchange LLC (‘‘BOX’’), Cboe Exchange,
Inc. (‘‘Cboe’’), Cboe C2 Exchange, Inc.
(‘‘C2’’), NYSE Chicago, Inc. (‘‘CHX’’),
Cboe EDGA Exchange, Inc. (‘‘EDGA’’),
Cboe EDGX Exchange, Inc. (‘‘EDGX’’),
Financial Industry Regulatory
Authority, Inc. (‘‘FINRA’’), Nasdaq ISE,
LLC (‘‘ISE’’), Nasdaq GEMX, LLC
(‘‘GEMX’’), Nasdaq MRX, LLC (‘‘MRX’’),
Investors Exchange LLC (‘‘IEX’’), Miami
International Securities Exchange, LLC
(‘‘MIAX’’), MIAX PEARL, LLC (‘‘MIAX
PEARL’’), MIAX Emerald, LLC (‘‘MIAX
Emerald’’), The Nasdaq Stock Market
LLC (‘‘Nasdaq’’), Nasdaq BX, Inc.
(‘‘BX’’), Nasdaq PHLX LLC (‘‘PHLX’’),
NYSE National, Inc. (‘‘NYSE National’’),
New York Stock Exchange LLC
(‘‘NYSE’’), NYSE American LLC (‘‘NYSE
American’’), NYSE Arca, Inc. (‘‘NYSE
Arca’’), and Long-Term Stock Exchange,
Inc. (‘‘LTSE’’) (each, a ‘‘Participating
Organization,’’ and, together, the
‘‘Participating Organizations’’ or the
‘‘Parties’’), filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (‘‘Commission’’
or ‘‘SEC’’) an amended plan for the
allocation of regulatory responsibilities
(‘‘17d-2 Plan’’ or the ‘‘Plan’’). The Plan
was published for comment on February
25, 2020.1 The Commission received no
comments on the Plan. This order
1 See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 88246
(February 20, 2020), 85 FR 10746.
CFR 200.30–3(a)(12).
VerDate Sep<11>2014
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION
Jkt 250001
PO 00000
Frm 00130
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
2 15
U.S.C. 78s(g)(1).
U.S.C. 78q(d) and 15 U.S.C. 78s(g)(2),
respectively.
4 15 U.S.C. 78q(d)(1).
5 See Securities Act Amendments of 1975, Report
of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and
Urban Affairs to Accompany S. 249, S. Rep. No. 94–
75, 94th Cong., 1st Session 32 (1975).
6 17 CFR 240.17d–1 and 17 CFR 240.17d–2,
respectively.
7 See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 12352
(April 20, 1976), 41 FR 18808 (May 7, 1976).
3 15
E:\FR\FM\17MRN1.SGM
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Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 52 (Tuesday, March 17, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15234-15238]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-05377]
=======================================================================
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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
[Release No. 34-88359; File No. SR-CboeBYX-2020-008]
Self-Regulatory Organizations; Cboe BYX Exchange, Inc.; Notice of
Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change Relating
To Amend the Fee Schedule
March 11, 2020.
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 March 2, 2020, Cboe BYX Exchange, Inc. (the ``Exchange'' or
``BYX'') filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the
``Commission'') the proposed rule change as described in Items I, II,
and III below, which Items have been prepared by the Exchange. 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
Cboe BYX Exchange, Inc. (the ``Exchange'' or ``BZX'') is filing
with the Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') a proposed
rule change to amend the fee schedule. The text of the proposed rule
change is provided in Exhibit 5.
The text of the proposed rule change is also available on the
Exchange's website (https://markets.cboe.com/us/equities/regulation/rule_filings/byx/), at the Exchange's Office of the Secretary, 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 Exchange has prepared summaries, set forth in
sections A, B, and C below, of
[[Page 15235]]
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 fee schedule in connection with
its Remove Volume Tiers, effective March 2, 2020.
The Exchange first notes that it operates in a highly-competitive
market in which market participants can readily direct order flow to
competing venues if they deem fee levels at a particular venue to be
excessive or incentives to be insufficient. More specifically, the
Exchange is only one of 13 registered equities exchanges, as well as a
number of alternative trading systems and other off-exchange venues
that do not have similar self-regulatory responsibilities under the
Exchange Act, to which market participants may direct their order flow.
Based on publicly available information,\3\ no single registered
equities exchange has more than 17% of the market share. Thus, in such
a low-concentrated and highly competitive market, no single equities
exchange possesses significant pricing power in the execution of order
flow. The Exchange in particular operates a ``Taker-Maker'' model
whereby it pays credits to members that remove liquidity and assesses
fees to those that add liquidity. The Exchange's Fees Schedule sets
forth the standard rebates and rates applied per share for orders that
provide and remove liquidity, respectively. Particularly, for
securities at or above $1.00, the Exchange provides a standard rebate
of $0.0005 per share for orders that remove liquidity and assesses a
fee of $0.0019 per share for orders that add liquidity. The Exchange
believes that the ever-shifting market share among the exchanges from
month to month demonstrates that market participants can shift order
flow, or discontinue to reduce use of certain categories of products,
in response to fee changes. Accordingly, competitive forces constrain
the Exchange's transaction fees, and market participants can readily
trade on competing venues if they deem pricing levels at those other
venues to be more favorable. In response to the competitive
environment, the Exchange also offers tiered pricing which provides
Members opportunities to qualify for higher rebates or reduced fees
where certain volume criteria and thresholds are met. Tiered pricing
provides incremental incentives for Members to strive for higher or
different tier levels by offering increasingly higher discounts or
enhanced benefits for satisfying increasingly more stringent criteria
or different criteria.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ See Cboe Global Markets, U.S. Equities Market Volume
Summary, Month-to-Date (February 25, 2020), available at https://markets.cboe.com/us/equities/market_statistics/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pursuant to footnote 1 of the Fees Schedule, the Exchange currently
offers Remove Volume Tiers (tiers 6 through 9) that provide Members an
opportunity to receive an enhanced rebate from the standard fee
assessment for liquidity removing orders that yield fee codes
``BB'',\4\ ``N'' \5\ and ``W''.\6\ The Remove Volume Tiers currently
offer four different tiers that vary in levels of criteria difficulty
and incentive opportunities in which Members may qualify for enhanced
rebates for such orders. For example, Tier 6 currently provides an
enhanced rebate of $0.0015 for Members who have an ADV \7\ of greater
than or equal to 0.08% of the TCV,\8\ and an ADAV \9\ of greater than
or equal to 500,000 shares. The Exchange notes that these tiers are
designed to encourage Members to increase their order flow, adding and/
or removing orders, in order to receive an enhanced rebate on their
liquidity removing orders.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ Appended to displayed orders that removes liquidity from BYX
(Tape B), and offered a rebate of $0.00050.
\5\ Appended to displayed orders that remove liquidity from BYX
(Tape C), and offered a rebate of $0.00050.
\6\ Appended to displayed orders that remove liquidity from BYX
(Tape A), and assessed a fee of $0.00050.
\7\ ``ADV'' means average daily volume calculated as the number
of shares added or removed, combined, per day. ADV is calculated on
a monthly basis.
\8\ ``TCV'' means total consolidated volume calculated as the
volume reported by all exchanges and trade reporting facilities to a
consolidated transaction reporting plan for the month for which the
fees apply.
\9\ ``ADAV'' means average daily volume calculated as the number
of shares added per day. ADAV is calculated on a monthly basis.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Specifically, the Exchange proposes to amend Remove Volume Tier 8.
Pursuant to current Tier 8, a Member may receive an enhanced rebate of
$0.0017 for qualifying, liquidity removing orders (i.e. yielding fee
code BB, N, or W) if that Member has a Step-Up Remove TCV \10\ from
December 2017 >= 0.10%, and has an ADAV >= 0.30% of the TCV. The
Exchange proposes to amend Tier 8 so that a Member may receive an
enhanced rebate of $0.0018 for qualifying, liquidity removing orders if
that Member has a Step-Up Remove TCV from February 2020 that is greater
than or equal to 0.05%. The proposed criteria change is designed to
incentivize Members to increase their relative liquidity taking order
flow each month over a predetermined baseline (as proposed, from
February 2020) in order to receive an enhanced rebate on their
liquidity removing orders, by making Tier 8 criteria easier to achieve
and increasing the enhanced rebate provided under such tier. Instead of
meeting two unique criteria to receive the enhanced rebate, the
proposed change narrows Tier 8 to just one criterion with a lower Step-
Up Remove TCV threshold (as well as updates the month from which this
criterion is measured). As a result of the proposed ease in criteria
coupled with the increased enhanced rebate, Members will have an
additional opportunity to receive an enhanced rebate by submitting
liquidity removing order and will be further incentivized to submit
liquidity removing order flow. An increase in liquidity executing
orders would, in turn, incentivize liquidity adding order flow to take
advantage of the increase in execution opportunities, thereby
contributing to deeper, more liquid markets and price discovery. The
Exchange believes that this would overall benefit all Members by
contributing towards a robust and well-balanced market ecosystem. The
Exchange notes that Tier 8, as amended, will continue to be available
to all Members and is competitively achievable for all Members that
submit liquidity removing order flow, in that, all firms that submit
the requisite order flow could compete to meet the tier.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\10\ ``Step-Up Remove TCV'' means remove ADV as a percentage of
TCV in the relevant baseline month subtracted from current remove
ADV as a percentage of TCV.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Exchange also proposes to eliminate Remove Volume Tier 9, which
currently provides that a Member may receive an enhanced rebate of
$0.0017 for qualifying, liquidity removing orders if that Member has a
Step-Up Remove TCV from January 2018 >= 0.30%, and has a remove ADV >=
0.70% of the TCV. The Exchange proposes to eliminate Tier 9 because no
Members have achieved this tier in some months.
2. Statutory Basis
The Exchange believes that the proposed rule change is consistent
with the objectives of Section 6 of the Act,\11\ in general, and
furthers the objectives of Section 6(b)(4),\12\ in particular, as it is
designed to provide for the equitable allocation of reasonable dues,
fees and other charges among its Members and issuers and other persons
using its
[[Page 15236]]
facilities. The Exchange also believes that the proposed rule change is
consistent with the objectives of Section 6(b)(5) \13\ requirements
that the rules of an exchange be designed to prevent fraudulent and
manipulative acts and practices, to promote just and equitable
principles of trade, to foster cooperation and coordination with
persons engaged in regulating, clearing, settling, processing
information with respect to, and facilitating transactions in
securities, to remove impediments to and perfect the mechanism of a
free and open market and a national market system, and, in general, to
protect investors and the public interest, and, particularly, is not
designed to permit unfair discrimination between customers, issuers,
brokers, or dealers.
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\11\ 15 U.S.C. 78f.
\12\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(4).
\13\ 15 U.S.C. 78f.(b)(5).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Exchange operates in a highly-competitive market in which
market participants can readily direct order flow to competing venues
if they deem fee levels at a particular venue to be excessive or
incentives to be insufficient. The proposed rule change reflects a
competitive pricing structure designed to incentivize market
participants to direct their order flow to the Exchange, which the
Exchange believes would enhance market quality to the benefit of all
Members.
In particular, the Exchange believes the proposed tier is
reasonable because it restructures an opportunity for Members to
receive an enhanced rebate by making it easier to reach the proposed
threshold by means of liquidity removing orders. The Exchange notes
that relative volume-based incentives and discounts have been widely
adopted by exchanges,\14\ including the Exchange,\15\ and are
reasonable, equitable and non-discriminatory because they are open to
all members on an equal basis and provide additional benefits or
discounts that are reasonably related to (i) the value to an exchange's
market quality and (ii) associated higher levels of market activity,
such as higher levels of liquidity provision and/or growth patterns.
Additionally, as noted above, the Exchange operates in highly
competitive market. The Exchange is only one of several equity venues
to which market participants may direct their order flow, and it
represents a small percentage of the overall market. It is also only
one of several taker-maker exchanges. Competing equity exchanges offer
similar tiered pricing structures to that of the Exchange, including
schedules of rebates and fees that apply based upon members achieving
certain volume and/or growth thresholds. These competing pricing
schedules, moreover, are presently comparable to those that the
Exchange provides, including the pricing of comparable tiers.\16\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\14\ See e.g., The Nasdaq BX, Inc. Rules, Equity 7 Pricing
Schedule, Sec. 118(a), which generally provides credits to members
for adding and/or removing liquidity that reaches certain thresholds
of Consolidated Volume; and Cboe EDGA U.S. Equities Exchange Fee
Schedule, Footnote 7, Add/Remove Volume Tiers, which provides
similar incentives for liquidity removing orders.
\15\ See generally, Cboe BYX U.S. Equities Exchange Fee
Schedule, Footnotes 1 and 2, Add/Remove Volume and Step-Up tiers
provide incentives for volume adding and/or removing orders and for
criteria based on Step-Up Add TCV, respectively.
\16\ See supra note 14. BX offers credits between $0.0029 and
$0.0014 per share for liquidity removing orders (substantially
similar to those rebates which the Exchange proposes) depending on
different criteria levels achieved.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moreover, the Exchange believes the proposed modification to
increase the enhanced rebate and ease the criteria under Remove Volume
Tier 8, by removing the ADAV as a percentage of TCV threshold component
and decreasing the Step-Up Remove TCV threshold (the proposed change
also updates the month by which the Step-Up component is measured), is
a reasonable means to further incentivize Members to increase their
remove volume order flow to the Exchange by encouraging those Members
who could not achieve the tier previously to increase their remove
volume by a modest amount since February 2020 to receive the tier's
increased rebate. As such, adopting criteria based on a Member's
removing orders will encourage Members executing on the Exchange to
increase transactions and provide increased execution opportunities, in
turn, incentivizing liquidity providing Members to take such increase
execution opportunities and provide increased liquidity and price
transparency on the Exchange. The Exchange believes that these
increases benefit all Members by enhancing market quality and
contributing towards a robust and well-balanced market ecosystem.
Increased overall order flow benefits all investors by deepening the
Exchange's liquidity pool, potentially providing even greater execution
incentives and opportunities, offering additional flexibility for all
investors to enjoy cost savings, supporting the quality of price
discovery, promoting market transparency and improving investor
protection. The proposed increased enhanced rebate amount also does not
represent a significant departure from the enhanced rebates currently
offered under the Exchange's existing Remove Volume Tiers (tier 6
offers an enhanced rebate of $0.0015 and tier 7 an enhanced rebate of
$0.0018). The proposed amended tier merely provides and additional
opportunity for Members submitting liquidity taking orders to achieve
an enhanced rebate. In addition to this, the Exchange believes it is
reasonable to remove Tier 9 from the Fee Schedule as no Members have
achieved such tier in recent months. If the Exchange wishes to
implement additional opportunities to meet different tier criteria
within the Remove Volume Tiers it may seek to do so by submitting a
rule filing at a later date.
The Exchange believes that the proposal represents an equitable
allocation of rebates and is not unfairly discriminatory because all
Members will continue to be eligible for Remove Volume Tier 8 as
amended, and will have the opportunity to meet the tier's criteria and
would receive the proposed increased enhanced rebate if such criteria
is met. Without having a view of activity on other markets and off-
exchange venues, the Exchange has no way of knowing whether this
proposed rule change would definitely result in any Members qualifying
for this tier. While the Exchange has no way of predicting with
certainty how the proposed tier will impact Member activity, the
Exchange anticipates that at least four Members will be able to compete
for and reach the proposed tier. Accordingly, the Exchange believes the
proposed criteria modification is reasonably designed as an incentive
to any and all Members interested in meeting the tier criteria to
submit additional displayed order flow to achieve the proposed
discount. The Exchange anticipates that these will include multiple
Member types, including wholesale firms (i.e., broker-dealers that
function to primarily make markets for retail orders) as well as
proprietary firms, each providing distinct types of order flow to the
Exchange to the benefit of all market participants. For example,
increased wholesale firm order flow provides more trading opportunities
for retail customers, which in turn attracts Market Makers. Increased
Market Maker activity facilitates tighter spreads which potentially
increases order flow from other market participants.
Further, the proposed elimination of Tier 9 represents an equitable
allocation of fees and is not unfairly discriminatory because it will
equally remove the enhanced rebate opportunity in Tier 9 for all
Members. The Exchange also notes that the proposed elimination of Tier
9 will not adversely impact any Member's pricing or their ability to
[[Page 15237]]
qualify for existing enhanced rebates (note that, the proposed enhanced
rebate in Tier 8 will be higher than the rebate offered by Tier 9) or
reduced fee tiers. Likewise, should a Member not meet the proposed
criteria in Tier 8, the Member will merely not receive the enhanced
rebate proposed in Tier 8 and still would have the opportunity to meet
other criteria for enhanced rebates and reduced fees. Furthermore, the
proposed rate in Tier 8 would uniformly apply to all Members that meet
the required criteria under the modified tier.
B. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement on Burden on Competition
The Exchange does not believe that the proposed rule change will
impose any burden on intramarket or intermarket competition that is not
necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the Act.
Rather, as discussed above, the Exchange believes that the proposed
change would encourage the submission of additional order flow to a
public exchange, thereby promoting market depth, execution incentives
and enhanced execution opportunities, as well as price discovery and
transparency for all Members. As a result, the Exchange believes that
the proposed change furthers the Commission's goal in adopting
Regulation NMS of fostering competition among orders, which promotes
``more efficient pricing of individual stocks for all types of orders,
large and small.'' \17\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\17\ Securities Exchange Act Release No. 51808, 70 FR 37495,
37498-99 (June 29, 2005) (S7-10-04) (Final Rule).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Exchange believes the proposed rule change does not impose any
burden on intramarket competition that is not necessary or appropriate
in furtherance of the purposes of the Act. Particularly, the proposed
change applies to all Members equally in that all Members are eligible
for the proposed tier, have a reasonable opportunity to meet the tier's
criteria and will all receive the proposed fee rate if such criteria is
met. Additionally the proposed change is designed to attract additional
order flow to the Exchange. The Exchange believes that the modified
tier criteria would incentivize market participants to direct liquidity
removing order flow to the Exchange and, as a result, increase
execution opportunities, which would further incentivize the provision
of liquidity and continued order flow and improve price transparency on
the Exchange. Greater overall order flow and pricing transparency
benefits all market participants on the Exchange by generally providing
more trading opportunities, enhancing market quality, and continuing to
encourage Members to send orders, thereby contributing towards a robust
and well-balanced market ecosystem, which benefits all market
participants.
Next, the Exchange believes the proposed rule change does not
impose any burden on intermarket competition that is not necessary or
appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the Act. As previously
discussed, the Exchange operates in a highly competitive market.
Members have numerous alternative venues that they may participate on
and direct their order flow, including 12 other equities exchanges and
off-exchange venues and alternative trading systems. Additionally, the
Exchange represents a small percentage of the overall market. Based on
publicly available information, no single equities exchange has more
than 17% of the market share.\18\ Therefore, no exchange possesses
significant pricing power in the execution of order flow. Indeed,
participants can readily choose to send their orders to other exchange
and off-exchange venues if they deem fee levels at those other venues
to be more favorable. Moreover, the Commission has repeatedly expressed
its preference for competition over regulatory intervention in
determining prices, products, and services in the securities markets.
Specifically, in Regulation NMS, the Commission highlighted the
importance of market forces in determining prices and SRO revenues and,
also, recognized that current regulation of the market system ``has
been remarkably successful in promoting market competition in its
broader forms that are most important to investors and listed
companies.'' \19\ The fact that this market is competitive has also
long been recognized by the courts. In NetCoalition v. Securities and
Exchange Commission, the D.C. Circuit stated as follows: ``[n]o one
disputes that competition for order flow is `fierce.' . . . As the SEC
explained, `[i]n the U.S. national market system, buyers and sellers of
securities, and the broker-dealers that act as their order-routing
agents, have a wide range of choices of where to route orders for
execution'; [and] `no exchange can afford to take its market share
percentages for granted' because `no exchange possesses a monopoly,
regulatory or otherwise, in the execution of order flow from broker
dealers'. . . .''. \20\ Accordingly, the Exchange does not believe its
proposed fee change imposes any burden on competition that is not
necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the Act.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\18\ See supra note 3.
\19\ See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 51808 (June 9,
2005), 70 FR 37496, 37499 (June 29, 2005).
\20\ NetCoalition v. SEC, 615 F.3d 525, 539 (DC Cir. 2010)
(quoting Securities Exchange Act Release No. 59039 (December 2,
2008), 73 FR 74770, 74782-83 (December 9, 2008) (SR-NYSEArca-2006-
21)).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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) of the Act \21\ and paragraph (f) of Rule 19b-4 \22\
thereunder. 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 will institute proceedings to
determine whether the proposed rule change should be approved or
disapproved.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\21\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(A).
\22\ 17 CFR 240.19b-4(f).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 [email protected]. Please include
File Number SR-CboeBYX-2020-008 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-CboeBYX-2020-008. This
file number should be included on the subject line if email is used. To
help the Commission process and review your
[[Page 15238]]
comments more efficiently, please use only one method. The Commission
will post all comments on the Commission's internet website (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 website 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. Persons submitting comments are cautioned that we do
not redact or edit personal identifying information from comment
submissions. All submissions should refer to File Number SR-CboeBYX-
2020-008 and should be submitted on or before April 7, 2020.
For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets,
pursuant to delegated authority.\23\
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\23\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(12).
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J. Matthew DeLesDernier,
Assistant Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2020-05377 Filed 3-16-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011-01-P