88 FR 167 pgs. 59953-59957 - Order Making Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Adjustments to Registration Fee Rates

Type: NOTICEVolume: 88Number: 167Pages: 59953 - 59957
Docket number: [Release Nos. 33-11224; 34-98223/August 25, 2023]
FR document: [FR Doc. 2023-18723 Filed 8-29-23; 8:45 a.m.]
Agency: Securities and Exchange Commission
Official PDF Version:  PDF Version
Pages: 59953, 59954, 59955, 59956, 59957

[top] page 59953

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release Nos. 33-11224; 34-98223/August 25, 2023]

Order Making Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Adjustments to Registration Fee Rates

I. Background

The Commission collects fees under various provisions of the securities laws. Section 6(b) of the Securities Act of 1933 ("Securities Act") requires the Commission to collect fees from issuers on the registration of securities. 1 Section 13(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("Exchange Act") requires the Commission to collect fees on specified repurchases of securities. 2 Section 14(g) of the Exchange Act requires the Commission to collect fees on specified proxy solicitations and statements in corporate control transactions. 3 These provisions require the Commission to make annual adjustments to the applicable fee rates.

Footnotes:

1 ?15 U.S.C. 77f(b).

2 ?15 U.S.C. 78m(e).

3 ?15 U.S.C. 78n(g).

II. Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Adjustment to Fee Rates

Section 6(b)(2) of the Securities Act requires the Commission to make an annual adjustment to the fee rate applicable under Section 6(b). 4 The annual adjustment to the fee rate under Section 6(b) of the Securities Act also sets the annual adjustment to the fee rates under Sections 13(e) and 14(g) of the Exchange Act. 5

Footnotes:

4 ?15 U.S.C. 77f(b)(2). The annual adjustments are designed to adjust the fee rate in a given fiscal year so that, when applied to the aggregate maximum offering prices at which securities are proposed to be offered for the fiscal year, it is reasonably likely to produce total fee collections under Section 6(b) equal to the "target fee collection amount" required by Section 6(b)(6)(A) for that fiscal year.

5 ?15 U.S.C. 78m(e)(4) and 15 U.S.C. 78n(g)(4).

Section 6(b)(2) sets forth the method for determining the annual adjustment to the fee rate under Section 6(b) for fiscal year 2024. Specifically, the Commission must adjust the fee rate under Section 6(b) to a "rate that, when applied to the baseline estimate of the aggregate maximum offering prices for [fiscal year 2024], is reasonably likely to produce aggregate fee collections under [Section 6(b)] that are equal to the target fee collection amount for [fiscal year 2024]." That is, the adjusted rate is determined by dividing the "target fee collection amount" for fiscal year 2024 by the "baseline estimate of the aggregate maximum offering prices" for fiscal year 2024.

III. Target Fee Collection Amount for FY 2024

The statutory "target fee collection amount" for fiscal year 2021 and "each fiscal year thereafter" is "an amount that is equal to the target fee collection amount for the prior fiscal year, adjusted by the rate of inflation."? 6 Consistent with the fiscal year 2021 calculation, the Commission has determined that it will use an approach similar to one that it uses to annually adjust civil monetary penalties by the rate of inflation. 7 Under this approach, the Commission will use the year-over-year change, rounded to five decimal places, in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers ("CPI-U"), not seasonally adjusted, in calculating the target fee collection amount, which is then rounded to the nearest whole dollar. The calculation for the fiscal year 2024 target fee collection amount is described in more detail below.

Footnotes:

6 ?15 U.S.C. 77f(b)(6)(A).

7 ?The Commission annually adjusts for inflation the civil monetary penalties that can be imposed under the statutes administered by Commission, as required by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, pursuant to guidance from the Office of Management and Budget ("OMB"). See OMB Dec. 16, 2019, Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies," M-20-05, on "Implementation of Penalty Inflation Adjustments for 2020, Pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015."

8 ?This value was announced on July 12, 2023. See https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/cpi_07122023.htm.


[top] The most recent CPI-U index value, not seasonally adjusted, available for use by the Commission at the time this fee rate update was prepared was for June 2023. This value is 305.109. 8 The CPI-U index value, not seasonally page 59954 adjusted, for June 2022 is 296.311. 9 Dividing the June 2023 value by the June 2022 value and rounding to five decimal places yields a multiplier value of 1.02969. Multiplying the fiscal year 2023 target fee collection amount of $815,557,629? 10 by the multiplier value of 1.02969 and rounding to the nearest whole dollar yields a fiscal year 2024 target fee collection amount of $839,771,535.

Footnotes:

9 ?See "Table 1. Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U): U.S. city average, by expenditure category, June 2023" in the announcement referenced above.

10 ?See 87 FR 53030, published Aug. 30, 2022 ( https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/08/30/2022-18668/order-making-fiscal-year-2023-annual-adjustments-to-registration-fee-rates ).

Section 6(b)(6)(B) defines the "baseline estimate of the aggregate maximum offering prices" for fiscal year 2024 as "the baseline estimate of the aggregate maximum offering price at which securities are proposed to be offered pursuant to registration statements filed with the Commission during [fiscal year 2024] as determined by the Commission, after consultation with the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget . . . ."

To make the baseline estimate of the aggregate maximum offering prices for fiscal year 2024, the Commission is using the methodology it has used in prior fiscal years and that was developed in consultation with the Congressional Budget Office and OMB. 11 Using this methodology, the Commission determines the "baseline estimate of the aggregate maximum offering price" for fiscal year 2024 to be $5,690,702,748,940. Based on this estimate and the fiscal year 2024 target fee collection amount, the Commission calculates the fee rate for fiscal 2024 to be $147.60 per million. This adjusted fee rate applies to Section 6(b) of the Securities Act, as well as to Sections 13(e) and 14(g) of the Exchange Act.

Footnotes:

11 ?Appendix A explains how we determined the "baseline estimate of the aggregate maximum offering prices" for fiscal year 2024 using our methodology, and then shows the arithmetical process of calculating the fiscal year 2024 annual adjustment based on that estimate. The appendix includes the data used by the Commission in making its "baseline estimate of the aggregate maximum offering prices" for fiscal year 2024.

IV. Effective Dates of the Annual Adjustments

The fiscal year 2024 annual adjustments to the fee rates applicable under Section 6(b) of the Securities Act and Sections 13(e) and 14(g) of the Exchange Act will be effective on October 1, 2023. 12

Footnotes:

12 ?15 U.S.C. 77f(b)(4), 15 U.S.C. 78m(e)(6), and 15 U.S.C. 78n(g)(6).

V. Conclusion

Accordingly, pursuant to Section 6(b) of the Securities Act and Sections 13(e) and 14(g) of the Exchange Act, 13

Footnotes:

13 ?15 U.S.C. 77f(b), 78m(e), and 78n(g).

It is hereby ordered that the fee rates applicable under Section 6(b) of the Securities Act and Sections 13(e) and 14(g) of the Exchange Act shall be $147.60 per million effective on October 1, 2023.

By the Commission.

J. Matthew DeLesDernier,

Deputy Secretary.

Appendix A

Congress has established a target amount of monies to be collected from fees charged to issuers based on the value of their registrations. This appendix provides the formula for determining such fees, which the Commission adjusts annually. Congress has mandated that the Commission determine these fees based on the "aggregate maximum offering prices," which measures the aggregate dollar amount of securities registered with the Commission over the course of the year (hereafter, "registrations"). In order to maximize the likelihood that the amount of monies targeted by Congress will be collected, the fee rate must be set to reflect projected aggregate maximum offering prices. As a percentage, the fee rate equals the ratio of the target amounts of monies to the projected aggregate maximum offering prices.

For 2024, the Commission has estimated the aggregate maximum offering prices by projecting forward the trend established in the previous decade. More specifically, an auto-regressive integrated moving average ("ARIMA") model was used to forecast the value of the aggregate maximum offering prices for months subsequent to July 2023, the last month for which the Commission has data on the aggregate maximum offering prices.

The following sections describe this process in detail.

A. Baseline Estimate of the Aggregate Maximum Offering Prices for Fiscal Year 2024

First, calculate the aggregate maximum offering prices (AMOP) for each month in the sample (July 2013 through July 2023). Next, calculate the percentage change in the AMOP from month to month.

Model the monthly percentage change in AMOP as a first order moving average process. The moving average approach allows one to model the effect that an exceptionally high (or low) observation of AMOP tends to be followed by a more "typical" value of AMOP.

Use the [estimated moving average] [ARIMA] model to forecast the monthly percent change in AMOP. These percent changes can then be applied to obtain forecasts of the total dollar value of registrations. The following is a more formal (mathematical) description of the procedure:

1. Begin with the monthly data for AMOP. The sample spans ten years, from July 2013 to July 2023.

2. Divide each month's AMOP (column C) by the number of trading days in that month (column B) to obtain the average daily AMOP (AAMOP, column D).

3. For each month t, the natural logarithm of AAMOP is reported in column E.

4. Calculate the change in log(AAMOP) from the previous month as ? t = log (AAMOP t )-log(AAMOP t-1 ). This approximates the percentage change.

5. Estimate the first order moving average model ? t = a + ße t-1 + e t , where e t denotes the forecast error for month t. The forecast error is simply the difference between the one-month ahead forecast and the actual realization of ? t . The forecast error is expressed as e t = ? t -a-ße t-1 . The model can be estimated using standard commercially available software. Using least squares, the estimated parameter values are a = 0.0034213782 and ß = 0.8643834013.

6. For the month of August 2023 forecast ? t = 8/2023 = a + ße t = 7/2023 . For all subsequent months, forecast ? t = a.

7. Calculate forecasts of log(AAMOP). For example, the forecast of log(AAMOP) for October 2023 is given by FLAAMOP t = 10/2023 = log(AAMOP t = 7/2023 ) + ? t = 8/2023 +? t = 9/2023 + ? t = 10/2023 .

8. Under the assumption that e t is normally distributed, the n-step ahead forecast of AAMOP is given by exp(FLAAMOP t + s n 2 /2), where s n denotes the standard error of the n-step ahead forecast.

9. For October 2023, this gives a forecast AAMOP of $22,085 million (Column I), and a forecast AMOP of $485,871 million (Column J).

10. Iterate this process through September 2024 to obtain a baseline estimate of the aggregate maximum offering prices for fiscal year 2024 of $5,690,702,748,940.

B. Using the Forecasts From A To Calculate the New Fee Rate

1. Using the data from Table A, estimate the aggregate maximum offering prices between 10/01/23 and 9/30/24 to be $5,690,702,748,940.

2. The rate necessary to collect the target $839,771,535 in fee revenues required by Section 6(b) of the Securities Act is then calculated as: $839,771,535 ÷ $5,690,702,748,940 = 0.0001475690.


[top] 3. Round the result to the seventh decimal point, yielding a rate of 0.0001476 (or $147.60 per million). page 59955

a. Baseline estimate of the aggregate maximum offering proces, 10/01/23 to 09/30/24 ($Millions) 5,690,703
b. Implied fee rate ($839,771,535 / a) $147.60

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[top] 
Month Number of trading days in month Aggregate maximum offering prices, in $Millions Average daily aggregate max. offering prices (AAMOP) in $Millions log(AAMOP) Log (change in AAMOP) Forecast log(AAMOP) Standard error Forecast AAMOP, in $Millions Forecast aggregate maximum offering prices, in $Millions
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (F) (G) (H) (I) (J)
Jul-13 22 263,869 11,994 23.208
Aug-13 22 253,305 11,514 23.167 -0.041
Sep-13 20 267,923 13,396 23.318 0.151
Oct-13 23 293,847 12,776 23.271 -0.047
Nov-13 20 326,257 16,313 23.515 0.244
Dec-13 21 358,169 17,056 23.560 0.045
Jan-14 21 369,067 17,575 23.590 0.030
Feb-14 19 298,376 15,704 23.477 -0.113
Mar-14 21 564,840 26,897 24.015 0.538
Apr-14 21 263,401 12,543 23.252 -0.763
May-14 21 403,700 19,224 23.679 0.427
Jun-14 21 423,075 20,146 23.726 0.047
Jul-14 22 373,811 16,991 23.556 -0.170
Aug-14 21 405,017 19,287 23.683 0.127
Sep-14 21 409,349 19,493 23.693 0.011
Oct-14 23 338,832 14,732 23.413 -0.280
Nov-14 19 386,898 20,363 23.737 0.324
Dec-14 22 370,760 16,853 23.548 -0.189
Jan-15 20 394,127 19,706 23.704 0.156
Feb-15 19 466,138 24,534 23.923 0.219
Mar-15 22 753,747 34,261 24.257 0.334
Apr-15 21 356,560 16,979 23.555 -0.702
May-15 20 478,591 23,930 23.898 0.343
Jun-15 22 446,102 20,277 23.733 -0.166
Jul-15 22 402,062 18,276 23.629 -0.104
Aug-15 21 334,746 15,940 23.492 -0.137
Sep-15 21 289,872 13,803 23.348 -0.144
Oct-15 22 300,276 13,649 23.337 -0.011
Nov-15 20 409,690 20,485 23.743 0.406
Dec-15 22 308,569 14,026 23.364 -0.379
Jan-16 19 457,411 24,074 23.904 0.540
Feb-16 20 554,343 27,717 24.045 0.141
Mar-16 22 900,301 40,923 24.435 0.390
Apr-16 21 250,716 11,939 23.203 -1.232
May-16 21 409,992 19,523 23.695 0.492
Jun-16 22 321,219 14,601 23.404 -0.291
Jul-16 20 289,671 14,484 23.396 -0.008
Aug-16 23 352,068 15,307 23.452 0.055
Sep-16 21 326,116 15,529 23.466 0.014
Oct-16 21 266,115 12,672 23.263 -0.203
Nov-16 21 443,034 21,097 23.772 0.510
Dec-16 21 310,614 14,791 23.417 -0.355
Jan-17 20 503,030 25,152 23.948 0.531
Feb-17 19 255,815 13,464 23.323 -0.625
Mar-17 23 723,870 31,473 24.172 0.849
Apr-17 19 255,275 13,436 23.321 -0.851
May-17 22 569,965 25,908 23.978 0.657
Jun-17 22 445,081 20,231 23.730 -0.247
Jul-17 20 291,167 14,558 23.401 -0.329
Aug-17 23 263,981 11,477 23.164 -0.238
Sep-17 20 372,705 18,635 23.648 0.485
Oct-17 22 173,749 7,898 22.790 -0.858
Nov-17 21 377,262 17,965 23.612 0.822
Dec-17 20 281,126 14,056 23.366 -0.245
Jan-18 21 593,025 28,239 24.064 0.698
Feb-18 19 353,182 18,589 23.646 -0.418
Mar-18 21 685,784 32,656 24.209 0.563
Apr-18 21 367,569 17,503 23.586 -0.624
May-18 22 543,840 24,720 23.931 0.345
Jun-18 21 477,967 22,760 23.848 -0.083
Jul-18 21 327,710 15,605 23.471 -0.377
Aug-18 23 347,239 15,097 23.438 -0.033
Sep-18 19 259,874 13,678 23.339 -0.099
Oct-18 23 300,814 13,079 23.294 -0.045
Nov-18 21 447,767 21,322 23.783 0.489
Dec-18 19 276,130 14,533 23.400 -0.383
Jan-19 21 495,624 23,601 23.885 0.485
Feb-19 19 372,166 19,588 23.698 -0.186
Mar-19 21 604,813 28,801 24.084 0.385
Apr-19 21 267,737 12,749 23.269 -0.815
May-19 22 476,892 21,677 23.800 0.531
Jun-19 20 399,178 19,959 23.717 -0.083
Jul-19 22 359,438 16,338 23.517 -0.200
Aug-19 22 401,391 18,245 23.627 0.110
Sep-19 20 382,876 19,144 23.675 0.048
Oct-19 23 181,113 7,874 22.787 -0.888
Nov-19 20 553,889 27,694 24.044 1.258
Dec-19 21 438,062 20,860 23.761 -0.283
Jan-20 21 636,403 30,305 24.135 0.373
Feb-20 19 424,133 22,323 23.829 -0.306
Mar-20 22 409,403 18,609 23.647 -0.182
Apr-20 21 389,821 18,563 23.644 -0.002
May-20 20 731,835 36,592 24.323 0.679
Jun-20 22 650,219 29,555 24.110 -0.214
Jul-20 22 457,871 20,812 23.759 -0.351
Aug-20 21 465,953 22,188 23.823 0.064
Sep-20 21 435,323 20,730 23.755 -0.068
Oct-20 22 429,638 19,529 23.695 -0.060
Nov-20 20 849,894 42,495 24.473 0.777
Dec-20 22 493,133 22,415 23.833 -0.640
Jan-21 19 753,590 39,663 24.404 0.571
Feb-21 19 785,163 41,324 24.445 0.041
Mar-21 23 960,806 41,774 24.456 0.011
Apr-21 21 430,803 20,514 23.744 -0.711
May-21 20 759,512 37,976 24.360 0.616
Jun-21 22 512,966 23,317 23.872 -0.488
Jul-21 21 485,097 23,100 23.863 -0.009
Aug-21 22 608,745 27,670 24.044 0.181
Sep-21 21 565,229 26,916 24.016 -0.028
Oct-21 21 338,100 16,100 23.502 -0.514
Nov-21 21 387,841 18,469 23.639 0.137
Dec-21 22 618,897 28,132 24.060 0.421
Jan-22 20 809,773 40,489 24.424 0.364
Feb-22 19 531,622 27,980 24.055 -0.370
Mar-22 23 868,009 37,740 24.354 0.299
Apr-22 20 607,591 30,380 24.137 -0.217
May-22 21 529,417 25,210 23.951 -0.187
Jun-22 21 410,380 19,542 23.696 -0.255
Jul-22 20 364,895 18,245 23.627 -0.069
Aug-22 23 495,621 21,549 23.794 0.166
Sep-22 21 371,472 17,689 23.596 -0.197
Oct-22 21 175,612 8,362 22.847 -0.749
Nov-22 21 362,262 17,251 23.571 0.724
Dec-22 21 311,922 14,853 23.421 -0.150
Jan-23 20 484,759 24,238 23.911 0.490
Feb-23 19 700,233 36,854 24.330 0.419
Mar-23 23 775,232 33,706 24.241 -0.089
Apr-23 19 310,952 16,366 23.518 -0.722
May-23 22 574,632 26,120 23.986 0.467
Jun-23 21 87,686 4,176 22.153 -1.833
Jul-23 20 778,808 38,940 24.385 2.233
Aug-23 23 23.737 0.380 21,876 503,156
Sep-23 20 23.740 0.383 21,980 439,609
Oct-23 22 23.743 0.387 22,085 485,871
Nov-23 21 23.747 0.390 22,190 465,993
Dec-23 20 23.750 0.393 22,296 445,914
Jan-24 21 23.754 0.397 22,402 470,438
Feb-24 20 23.757 0.400 22,508 450,168
Mar-24 20 23.761 0.403 22,616 452,311
Apr-24 22 23.764 0.407 22,723 499,909
May-24 22 23.767 0.410 22,831 502,288
Jun-24 19 23.771 0.413 22,940 435,859
Jul-24 22 23.774 0.416 23,049 507,080
Aug-24 22 23.778 0.420 23,159 509,493
Sep-24 20 23.781 0.423 23,269 465,379


BILLING CODE 8011-01-P


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[FR Doc. 2023-18723 Filed 8-29-23; 8:45 a.m.]

BILLING CODE 8011-01-C