79 FR 177 pgs. 54755-54756 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

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Type: NOTICEVolume: 79Number: 177Pages: 54755 - 54756

FR document: [FR Doc. 2014-21733 Filed 9-11-14; 8:45 am]

Agency: Securities and Exchange Commission

Official PDF Version: PDF Version

Pages: 54755, 54756

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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of FOIA Services, 100 F Street NE., Washington, DC 20549-2736.

Extension:

Rule 17a-7; SEC File No. 270-238, OMB Control No. 3235-0214

Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), the Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget ("OMB") a request for extension of the previously approved collection of information described below.

[top] Rule 17a-7 (17 CFR 270.17a-7) (the "rule") under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a-1 et seq. ) (the "Act") is entitled "Exemption of certain purchase or sale transactions

between an investment company and certain affiliated persons thereof." It provides an exemption from section 17(a) of the Act for purchases and sales of securities between registered investment companies ("funds"), that are affiliated persons ("first-tier affiliates") or affiliated persons of affiliated persons ("second-tier affiliates"), or between a fund and a first- or second-tier affiliate other than another fund, when the affiliation arises solely because of a common investment adviser, director, or officer. Rule 17a-7 requires funds to keep various records in connection with purchase or sale transactions effected in reliance on the rule. The rule requires the fund's board of directors to establish procedures reasonably designed to ensure that the rule's conditions have been satisfied. The board is also required to determine, at least on a quarterly basis, that all affiliated transactions effected during the preceding quarter in reliance on the rule were made in compliance with these established procedures. If a fund enters into a purchase or sale transaction with an affiliated person, the rule requires the fund to compile and maintain written records of the transaction.¹The Commission's examination staff uses these records to evaluate for compliance with the rule.

Footnotes:

¹ The written records are required to set forth a description of the security purchased or sold, the identity of the person on the other side of the transaction, and the information or materials upon which the board of directors' determination that the transaction was in compliance with the procedures was made.

While most funds do not commonly engage in transactions covered by rule 17a-7, the Commission staff estimates that nearly all funds have adopted procedures for complying with the rule.²Of the approximately 3,382 currently active funds, the staff estimates that virtually all have already adopted procedures for compliance with rule 17a-7. This is a one-time burden, and the staff therefore does not estimate an ongoing burden related to the policies and procedures requirement of the rule for funds.³The staff estimates that there are approximately 140 new funds that register each year, and that each of these funds adopts the relevant policies and procedures. The staff estimates that it takes approximately 4 hours to develop and adopt these policies and procedures. Therefore, the total annual burden related to developing and adopting these policies and procedures would be approximately 560 hours.⁴

Footnotes:

² Unless stated otherwise, these estimates are based on conversations with the examination and inspections staff of the Commission and fund representatives.

³ Based on our reviews and conversations with fund representatives, we understand that funds rarely, if ever, need to make changes to these policies and procedures once adopted, and therefore we do not estimate a paperwork burden for such updates.

⁴ This estimate is based on the following calculations: (4 hours × 140 new funds = 560 hours).

Of the 3,382 existing funds, the staff assumes that approximately 25%, (or 846) enter into transactions affected by rule 17a-7 each year (either by the fund directly or through one of the fund's series), and that the same percentage (25%, or 35 funds) of the estimated 140 funds that newly register each year will also enter into these transactions, for a total of 881⁵companies that are affected by the recordkeeping requirements of rule 17a-7. These funds must keep records of each of these transactions, and the board of directors must quarterly determine that all relevant transactions were made in compliance with the company's policies and procedures. The rule generally imposes a minimal burden of collecting and storing records already generated for other purposes.⁶The staff estimates that the burden related to making these records and for the board to review all transactions would be 3 hours annually for each respondent, (2 hours spent by compliance attorneys and 1 hour spent by the board of directors)⁷or 2,643 total hours each year.⁸

Footnotes:

⁵ This estimate is based on the following calculation: (846 + 35 = 881).

⁶ Commission staff believes that rule 17a-7 does not impose any costs associated with record preservation in addition to the costs that funds already incur to comply with the record preservation requirements of rule 31a-2 under the Act. Rule 31a-2 requires companies to preserve certain records for specified periods of time.

⁷ The staff estimates that funds that rely on rule 17a-7 annually enter into an average of 8 rule 17a-7 transactions each year. The staff estimates that the compliance attorneys of the companies spend approximately 15 minutes per transaction on this recordkeeping, and the board of directors spends a total of 1 hour annually in determining that all transactions made that year were done in compliance with the company's policies and procedures.

⁸ This estimate is based on the following calculation: (3 hours × 881 companies = 2,643 hours).

Based on these estimates, the staff estimates the combined total annual burden hours associated with rule 17a-7 is 3,203 hours.⁹The staff also estimates that there are approximately 881 respondents and 7,048 total responses.¹⁰

Footnotes:

⁹ This estimate is based on the following calculation: (560 hours + 2,643 hours = 3,203 total hours).

¹⁰ This estimate is based on the following calculations: 881 funds that engage in rule 17a-7 transactions × 8 transactions per year = 7,048.

The estimates of burden hours are made solely for the purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act, and are not derived from a comprehensive or even a representative survey or study of the costs of Commission rules. The collection of information required by rule 17a-7 is necessary to obtain the benefits of the rule. Responses 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 unless it displays a currently valid control number.

The public may view the background documentation for this information collection at the following Web site, www.reginfo.gov . Comments should be directed to: (i) Desk Officer for the Securities and Exchange Commission, 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: Shagufta_Ahmed@omb.eop.gov; and (ii) Thomas Bayer, Chief Information Officer, Securities and Exchange Commission, c/o Remi Pavlik-Simon, 100 F Street NE., Washington, DC 20549 or send an email to: PRA_Mailbox@sec.gov . Comments must be submitted to OMB within 30 days of this notice.

Dated: September 8, 2014.

Kevin M. O'Neill,

Deputy Secretary.

[FR Doc. 2014-21733 Filed 9-11-14; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 8011-01-P