Notice2022-17432
Self-Regulatory Organizations; Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc.; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change To Amend Its Fee Schedule
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Published
August 15, 2022
Issuing agencies
Securities and Exchange Commission
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 156 (Monday, August 15, 2022)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 156 (Monday, August 15, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50133-50135]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-17432]
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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
[Release No. 34-95457; File No. SR-CboeBZX-2022-041]
Self-Regulatory Organizations; Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc.; Notice of
Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change To Amend
Its Fee Schedule
August 9, 2022.
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 August 1, 2022, Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc. (the ``Exchange'' or
``BZX'') 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 BZX Exchange, Inc. (the ``Exchange'' or ``BZX'') proposes to
amend its 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 (<a href="http://markets.cboe.com/us/equities/regulation/rule_filings/bzx/">http://markets.cboe.com/us/equities/regulation/rule_filings/bzx/</a>), 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 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 applicable to its
equities trading platform (``BZX Equities'') by eliminating the
Supplemental Incentive Program under Footnote 1 (Add/Remove Volume
Tiers). The Exchange proposes to implement these changes effective
August 1, 2022.
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 16 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
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the ``Act''), to which market
participants may direct their order flow. Based on publicly available
information,\3\ no single registered equities exchange has more than
16% 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 ``Maker-Taker'' model whereby it pays rebates to
members that add liquidity and assesses fees to those that remove
liquidity.
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\3\ See Cboe Global Markets, U.S. Equities Market Volume
Summary, Month-to-Date (June 27, 2022), available at <a href="https://markets.cboe.com/us/equities/market_statistics/">https://markets.cboe.com/us/equities/market_statistics/</a>.
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The Exchange's Fee Schedule sets forth the standard rebates and
rates applied per share for orders that provide and remove liquidity,
respectively. Currently, for orders in securities priced at or above
$1.00, the Exchange provides a standard rebate of $0.00160 per share
for orders that add liquidity and assesses a fee of $0.0030 per share
for orders that remove liquidity. For orders in securities priced below
$1.00, the Exchange does not provide a rebate or assess a fee for
orders that add liquidity and assesses a fee of 0.30% of total dollar
value for orders that remove liquidity. Additionally, in response to
the competitive environment, the Exchange also offers tiered pricing,
which provides Members with opportunities to qualify for higher rebates
or lower fees where certain volume criteria and thresholds are met.
Tiered pricing provides an incremental incentive for Members to strive
for higher tier levels, which provides increasingly higher benefits or
discounts for satisfying more stringent criteria.
Supplemental Incentive Program
Pursuant to footnote 1 of the Fee Schedule, the Exchange currently
offers three Supplemental Incentive Program tiers--one tier each for
Fee Codes B \4\, V,\5\ and Y.\6\ Each tier provides an additional
enhanced rebate for Members that add a certain Tape ADAV \7\ as a
percentage of that Tape's TCV.\8\ The Exchange no longer desires to
maintain such tiers and therefore proposes to eliminate the
Supplemental Program Incentive tiers for Tapes A, B, and C from the fee
schedule. The Exchange would rather redirect future resources and
funding into other programs and tiers intended to incentivize increased
order flow.
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\4\ Orders yielding Fee Code ``B'' are displayed orders adding
liquidity to BZX (Tape B).
\5\ Orders yielding Fee Code ``V'' are displayed orders adding
liquidity to BZX (Tape A).
\6\ Orders yielding Fee Cody ``Y'' are displayed orders adding
liquidity to BZX (Tape C).
\7\ ``ADAV'' means average daily added volume calculated as the
number of shares added per day and 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.
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2. Statutory Basis
The Exchange believes the proposed rule change is consistent with
the Act and the rules and regulations thereunder applicable to the
Exchange and, in particular, the requirements of Section 6(b) of the
Act.\9\ Specifically, the Exchange believes the proposed rule change is
consistent with the Section 6(b)(5) \10\ 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.
Additionally, the Exchange believes the proposed rule change is
consistent with
[[Page 50134]]
the Section 6(b)(5) \11\ requirement that the rules of an exchange not
be designed to permit unfair discrimination between customers, issuers,
brokers, or dealers.
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\9\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b).
\10\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(5).
\11\ Id.
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The Exchange believes that eliminating the Supplemental Incentive
Program under Footnote 1 is reasonable because the Exchange is not
required to maintain this program or provide additional rebates. Orders
yielding fee codes B, V, or Y have other opportunities to obtain
enhanced rebates, such as via the Add Volume Tiers or the Single MPID
Investor Tier.\12\ The Exchange believes that eliminating the
Supplemental Incentive Program is equitable and not unfairly
discriminatory because it applies uniformly to all Members. The
Exchange also notes that the proposed changes will not adversely impact
any Member's ability to qualify for reduced fees or enhanced rebates
offered under other tiers.
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\12\ See Cboe BZX U.S. Equities Exchange Fee Schedule.
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As noted above, the Exchange operates in a highly competitive
market. The Exchange is only one of 16 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 maker-
taker exchanges. Competing equity exchanges offer similar rates and
tiered pricing structures to that of the Exchange, including schedules
of rebates and fees that apply based upon members achieving certain
volume thresholds. Specifically, the Exchange notes that relative
volume-based incentives and discounts have been widely adopted by
exchanges,\13\ including the Exchange,\14\ 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
or liquidity provision and/or growth patterns.
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\13\ See Cboe EDGX Equities Fee Schedule, Footnote 1, Add/Remove
Volume Tiers.
\14\ See Cboe BZX Equities Fee Schedule, Footnote 1, Add/Remove
Volume Tiers.
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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 competition that is not necessary or appropriate
in furtherance of the purposes of the Act.
Particularly, the proposed elimination of the Supplemental
Incentive Program does not impose a burden on intramarket competition
that is not in furtherance of the Act in that the elimination of the
tier applies to all Members equally and all Members will continue to
have an opportunity to receive enhanced rebates or reduced fees offered
under other tiers. Furthermore, the Exchange believes that the
remaining tiers will continue to incentivize Members to submit
additional liquidity to the Exchange and to increase their order flow
on the Exchange generally, thereby contributing to a deeper and more
liquid market and promoting price discovery and market quality on the
Exchange to the benefit of all market participants and enhancing the
attractiveness of the Exchange as a trading venue, which the Exchange
believes, in turn, would continue to encourage market participants to
direct additional order flow to the Exchange. Greater liquidity
benefits all Members by providing more trading opportunities and
encourages Members to send additional orders to the Exchange, thereby
contributing to robust levels of liquidity, which benefits all market
participants.
The Exchange believes the proposal to eliminate the Supplemental
Incentive Program does not impose a burden on intermarket competition
that is not necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of
the Act. The Exchange does not believe that the proposed change
represents a significant departure from pricing currently offered by
the Exchange or pricing offered by other equities exchanges. Members
may opt to disfavor the Exchange's pricing if they believe that
alternatives offer them better value. Accordingly, the Exchange does
not believe that the proposed changes will impair the ability of
Members or competing venues to maintain their competitive standing in
the financial markets. 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 other equities exchanges, 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 16% of the
market share.\15\ 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.'' \16\ 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'. . .''.\17\
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\15\ Supra note 3.
\16\ See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 51808 (June 9,
2005), 70 FR 37496, 37499 (June 29, 2005).
\17\ NetCoalition v. SEC, 615 F.3d 525, 539 (D.C. 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 neither solicited nor received comments on the
proposed rule change.
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 \18\ and paragraph (f) of Rule 19b-4 \19\
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
[[Page 50135]]
change should be approved or disapproved.
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\18\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(A).
\19\ 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
<bullet> Use the Commission's internet comment form (<a href="http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml">http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml</a>); or
<bullet> Send an email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#7301061f165e101c1e1e161d0700330016105d141c05"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="ddafa8b1b8f0beb2b0b0b8b3a9ae9daeb8bef3bab2ab">[email protected]</span></a>. Please include
File Number SR-CboeBZX-2022-041 on the subject line.
Paper Comments
<bullet> 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-CboeBZX-2022-041. This
file number should be included on the subject line if email is used. To
help the Commission process and review your comments more efficiently,
please use only one method. The Commission will post all comments on
the Commission's internet website (<a href="http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml">http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml</a>).
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. Persons submitting
comments are cautioned that we do not redact or edit personal
identifying information from comment submissions. You should submit
only information that you wish to make available publicly. All
submissions should refer to File Number SR-CboeBZX-2022-041, and should
be submitted on or before September 6, 2022.
For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets,
pursuant to delegated authority.\20\
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\20\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(12).
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J. Matthew DeLesDernier,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2022-17432 Filed 8-12-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011-01-P
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