83 FR 4946 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Federal Register Volume 83, Issue 23 (February 2, 2018)

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 23 (Friday, February 2, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4946-4947]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2018-02115]


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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Upon Written Request, Copies Available From: Securities and Exchange 
Commission, Office of FOIA Services, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 
20549-2736

Extension:
    Rule 12d2-2 and Form 25, SEC File No. 270-86, OMB Control No. 
3235-0080

    Notice is hereby given that pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act 
of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), the Securities and Exchange 
Commission (``Commission'') has submitted to the Office of Management 
and Budget a request for approval of extension of the previously 
approved collection of information provided for the following rule: 
Rule 12d2-2 (17 CFR 240.12d2-2) and Form 25 (17 CFR 249.25).
    On February 12, 1935, the Commission adopted Rule 12d2-2,\1\ and 
Form 25 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78a et 
seq.) (``Act''), which sets forth the conditions and procedures under 
which a security may be delisted from an exchange and withdrawn from 
registration under Section 12(b) of the Act.\2\ The Commission adopted 
amendments to Rule 12d2-2 and Form 25 in 2005.\3\ Under the adopted 
Rule 12d2-2, all issuers and national securities exchanges seeking to 
delist and deregister a security in accordance with the rules of an 
exchange must file the adopted version of Form 25 with the Commission. 
The Commission also adopted amendments to Rule 19d-1 under the Act to 
require exchanges to file the adopted version of Form 25 as notice to 
the Commission under Section 19(d) of the Act. Finally, the Commission 
adopted amendments to exempt standardized options and security futures 
products from Section 12(d) of the Act. These amendments are intended 
to simplify the paperwork and procedure associated with a delisting and 
to unify general rules and procedures relating to the delisting 
process.
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    \1\ See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 98 (February 12, 
1935).
    \2\ See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 7011 (February 5, 
1963), 28 FR 1506 (February 16, 1963).
    \3\ See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 52029 (July 14, 
2005), 70 FR 42456 (July 22, 2005).
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    The Form 25 is useful because it informs the Commission that a 
security previously traded on an exchange is no longer traded. In 
addition, the Form 25 enables the Commission to verify that the 
delisting and/or deregistration has occurred in accordance with the 
rules of the exchange. Further, the Form 25 helps to focus the 
attention of delisting issuers to make sure that they abide by the 
proper procedural and notice requirements associated with a delisting 
and/or deregistration. Without Rule 12d2-2 and the Form 25, as 
applicable, the Commission would be unable to fulfill its statutory 
responsibilities.
    There are 21 national securities exchanges that could possibly be 
respondents complying with the requirements of the Rule and Form 25.\4\ 
The burden of complying with Rule 12d2-2 and Form 25 is not evenly 
distributed among the exchanges, however, since there are many more 
securities listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the NASDAQ Stock 
Market, and NYSE American than on the other exchanges. However, for 
purposes of this filing, the Commission staff has assumed that the 
number of responses is evenly divided among the exchanges. Since 
approximately 800 responses under Rule 12d2-2 and Form 25 for the 
purpose of delisting and/or deregistration of equity securities are 
received annually by the Commission

[[Page 4947]]

from the national securities exchanges, the resultant aggregate annual 
reporting hour burden would be, assuming on average one hour per 
response, 800 annual burden hours for all exchanges (21 exchanges x an 
average of 38.1 responses per exchange x 1 hour per response). In 
addition, since approximately 100 responses are received by the 
Commission annually from issuers wishing to remove their securities 
from listing and registration on exchanges, the Commission staff 
estimates that the aggregate annual reporting hour burden on issuers 
would be, assuming on average one reporting hour per response, 100 
annual burden hours for all issuers (100 issuers x 1 response per 
issuer x 1 hour per response). Accordingly, the total annual hour 
burden for all respondents to comply with Rule 12d2-2 is 900 hours (800 
hours for exchanges + 100 hours for issuers). The related internal cost 
of compliance associated with these burden hours is $188,400 ($157,000 
for exchanges ($196.25 per response x 800 responses) and $31,400 for 
issuers ($314 per response x 100 responses)).
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    \4\ The staff notes that a few of these 21 registered national 
securities exchanges only have rules to permit the listing of 
standardized options, which are exempt from Rule 12d2-2 under the 
Act. Nevertheless, the staff counted national securities exchanges 
that can only list options as potential respondents because these 
exchanges could potentially adopt new rules, subject to Commission 
approval under Section 19(b) of the Act, to list and trade equity 
and other securities that have to comply with Rule 12d2-2 under the 
Act. Notice registrants that are registered as national securities 
exchanges solely for the purposes of trading securities futures 
products have not been counted since, as noted above, securities 
futures products are exempt from complying with Rule 12d-2-2 under 
the Act and therefore do not have to file Form 25.
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    The collection of information obligations imposed by Rule 12d2-2 
and Form 25 are mandatory. The response will be available to the public 
and will not be kept confidential.
    An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required 
to respond to, a collection of information under the PRA unless it 
displays a currently valid OMB control number.
    The public may view background documentation for this information 
collection at the following website: www.reginfo.gov. Comments should 
be directed to: (i) Desk Officer for the Securities and Exchange 
Commission, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of 
Management and Budget, Room 10102, New Executive Office Building, 
Washington, DC 20503, or by sending an email to: 
[email protected]; and (ii) Pamela Dyson, Director/Chief 
Information Officer, Securities and Exchange Commission, c/o Remi 
Pavlik-Simon, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549, or by sending an 
email to: [email protected]. Comments must be submitted to OMB within 
30 days of this notice.

    Dated: January 30, 2018.
Eduardo A. Aleman,
Assistant Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2018-02115 Filed 2-1-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 8011-01-P