Notice2026-09992
Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Extension: Rule 611
Primary source
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Published
May 19, 2026
Issuing agencies
Securities and Exchange Commission
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 96 (Tuesday, May 19, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 96 (Tuesday, May 19, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Page 29198]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-09992]
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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
[OMB Control No. 3235-0600]
Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection;
Comment Request; Extension: Rule 611
Upon Written Request, Copies Available From: Securities and Exchange
Commission, Office of FOIA Services, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC
20549-2736.
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'') is soliciting comments on the existing
collection of information provided for Rule 611 (17 CFR 242.611) under
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78a et seq.) (``Exchange
Act''). The Commission plans to submit this existing collection of
information to the Office of Management and Budget (``OMB'') for
extension and approval.
On June 9, 2005, effective August 29, 2005 (see 70 FR 37496, June
29, 2005), the Commission adopted Rule 611 of Regulation NMS under the
Exchange Act to require any national securities exchange, national
securities association, alternative trading system, exchange market
maker, over-the-counter market maker, and any other broker-dealer that
executes orders internally by trading as principal or crossing orders
as agent, to establish, maintain, and enforce written policies and
procedures reasonably designed to prevent the execution of a
transaction in its market at a price that is inferior to a protected
bid or offer displayed in another market at the time of execution (a
``trade-though''), absent an applicable exception and, if relying on an
exception, that are reasonably designed to assure compliance with the
terms of the exception. Without this collection of information,
respondents would not have a means to enforce compliance with the
Commission's intention to prevent trade-throughs pursuant to the rule.
There are approximately 305 respondents \1\ per year that will
require an aggregate total of approximately 18,300 hours to comply with
this Rule. It is anticipated that each respondent will continue to
expend approximately 60 hours annually: two hours per month of internal
legal time and three hours per month of internal compliance time to
ensure that its written policies and procedures are up-to-date and
remain in compliance with Rule 611. The estimated cost for an attorney
is $744 per hour and the estimated cost for a financial examiner in the
securities industry is $365 per hour. Therefore the estimated total
internal cost of compliance for the annual hour burden is as follows:
[(2 legal hours x 12 months x $744) x 305] + [(3 compliance hours x 12
months x $365) x 305] = $9,453,780.\2\
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\1\ The Commission estimates that there are currently 305
trading centers subject to Rule 611. This estimate includes 20
exchanges (17 exchanges that trade NMS stocks + three exchanges that
are approved but not yet operating) and 33 ATSs that trade NMS
stocks. Based on data from the consolidated audit trail for January
2026, the estimate also includes 96 exchange market makers and 225
broker-dealers acting as OTC market maker or executing orders
internally by trading as principal or crossing orders as agent. 69
broker-dealers are both exchange market makers and an OTC market
maker or broker-dealer internalizing orders. 20 + 33 + 96 + 225-69 =
305 trading centers.
\2\ To calculate the occupational hourly rates used in this
release, the Commission uses occupational mean hourly wage data from
the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program of
the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for ``Securities, Commodity
Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities''
(NAICS 523). See Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/">https://www.bls.gov/oes/</a>; see also
Standard Occupational Classification, U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/soc/">https://www.bls.gov/soc/</a> (describing occupational
classification system used by BLS); Exec. Off. of the President,
Off. of Mgmt. & Budget, North American Industry Classification
System (2022), available at <a href="https://www.census.gov/naics/reference_files_tools/2022_NAICS_Manual.pdf">https://www.census.gov/naics/reference_files_tools/2022_NAICS_Manual.pdf</a> (describing the industry
classification system used by BLS and other agencies). The mean
hourly wage for each occupation is adjusted for changes in the
seasonally adjusted employment cost index for private wages and
salaries between the data reference period and when the data are
released by BLS. See Employment Cost Index, U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/eci/">https://www.bls.gov/eci/</a>. The adjusted mean hourly wage
is then multiplied by a factor that accounts for nonwage costs borne
by employers, such as bonuses, benefits, and overhead. This factor
is calculated as an average over the 10 most recently available
years of data of the ratio of the Bureau of Economic Analysis's
annual gross output data for NAICS 523 to total annual wages across
all occupations for NAICS 523 in the OEWS data. See Gross Output by
Industry, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, <a href="https://www.bea.gov/data/industries/gross-output-by-industry">https://www.bea.gov/data/industries/gross-output-by-industry</a>; Occupational Employment
and Wage Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/">https://www.bls.gov/oes/</a>. The final product is the occupational hourly rate.
See generally Updated Methodology for Calculating Occupational
Hourly Rates (Dec. 19, 2025), available at <a href="https://www.sec.gov/files/method-occupational-hourly-rates.pdf">https://www.sec.gov/files/method-occupational-hourly-rates.pdf</a>.
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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 OMB Control Number.
Written comments are invited on: (a) whether this proposed
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of
the functions of the SEC, including whether the information will have
practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the SEC's estimate of the burden
imposed by the proposed collection of information, including the
validity of the methodology and the assumptions used; (c) ways to
enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be
collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of
information on respondents, including through the use of automated,
electronic collection techniques or other forms of information
technology.
Please direct your written comments on this 60-Day Collection
Notice to Austin Gerig, Director/Chief Data Officer, Securities and
Exchange Commission, c/o Tanya Ruttenberg via email to
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#a9f9c8d9ccdbdec6dbc2fbcccddccaddc0c6c7e8cadde9daccca87cec6df"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="dc8cbdacb9aeabb3aeb78eb9b8a9bfa8b5b3b29dbfa89cafb9bff2bbb3aa">[email protected]</span></a> by July 20, 2026. There will be a second
opportunity to comment on this SEC request following the Federal
Register publishing a 30-Day Submission Notice.
Dated: May 15, 2026.
J. Matthew DeLesDernier,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2026-09992 Filed 5-18-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011-01-P
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