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]

Download as PDF 15234 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). 10:00 a.m. Strategic Programmatic Overview of the Operating Reactors and New Reactors Business Lines (Public Meeting) (Contact: Luis Betancourt: 301–415–6146) This meeting will be webcast live at the Web address—https://www.nrc.gov/ . Week of April 6, 2020—Tentative There are no meetings scheduled for the week of April 6, 2020. Week of April 13, 2020—Tentative There are no meetings scheduled for the week of April 13, 2020. Week of April 20, 2020—Tentative There are no meetings scheduled for the week of April 20, 2020. The Meeting with the Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes scheduled for March 31, 2020, has been postponed. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: CONTACT PERSON FOR MORE INFORMATION: Week of March 30, 2020—Tentative For more information or to verify the status of meetings, contact Denise McGovern at 301–415–0681 or via email at Denise.McGovern@nrc.gov. The schedule for Commission meetings is subject to change on short notice. The NRC Commission Meeting Schedule can be found on the internet at: https://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/ public-meetings/schedule.html. The NRC provides reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities where appropriate. If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate in these public meetings or need this meeting notice or the transcript or other information from the public meetings in another format (e.g., braille, large print), please notify Anne Silk, NRC Disability Program Specialist, at 301–287–0745, by videophone at 240–428–3217, or by email at Anne.Silk@nrc.gov. Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis. Members of the public may request to receive this information electronically. If you would like to be added to the distribution, please contact the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of the Secretary, Washington, DC 20555 (301– 415–1969), or by email at Tyesha.Bush@ nrc.gov. The NRC is holding the meetings under the authority of the Government in the Sunshine Act, 5 U.S.C. 552b. There are no meetings scheduled for the week of March 30, 2020. 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 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES Thursday, April 2, 2020 There are no meetings scheduled for the week of March 16, 2020. Week of March 23, 2020—Tentative There are no meetings scheduled for the week of March 23, 2020. VerDate Sep<11>2014 17:32 Mar 16, 2020 Jkt 250001 PO 00000 Frm 00126 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Denise L. McGovern, Policy Coordinator, Office of the Secretary. [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. E:\FR\FM\17MRN1.SGM 17MRN1 Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 52 / Tuesday, March 17, 2020 / Notices the most significant aspects of such statements. khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES 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/. VerDate Sep<11>2014 17:32 Mar 16, 2020 Jkt 250001 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. PO 00000 Frm 00127 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 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 E:\FR\FM\17MRN1.SGM U.S.C. 78f. U.S.C. 78f(b)(4). 17MRN1 15236 Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 52 / Tuesday, March 17, 2020 / Notices 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. khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES 14 See VerDate Sep<11>2014 17:32 Mar 16, 2020 Jkt 250001 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. PO 00000 Frm 00128 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 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 E:\FR\FM\17MRN1.SGM 17MRN1 Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 52 / Tuesday, March 17, 2020 / Notices khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES 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). VerDate Sep<11>2014 19:16 Mar 16, 2020 Jkt 250001 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 PO 00000 Frm 00129 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 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). E:\FR\FM\17MRN1.SGM 17MRN1 15238 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 17MRN1

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[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.
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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 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.
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    \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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    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.
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    \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.
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    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.
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    \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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    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).
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    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\
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    \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.
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    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\
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    \17\ Securities Exchange Act Release No. 51808, 70 FR 37495, 
37498-99 (June 29, 2005) (S7-10-04) (Final Rule).
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    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.
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    \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)).
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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.
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    \21\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(A).
    \22\ 17 CFR 240.19b-4(f).
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IV. Solicitation of Comments

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

Electronic Comments

     Use the Commission's internet comment form (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

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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


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