Self-Regulatory Organizations; Investors Exchange LLC; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change Pursuant to IEX Rule 15.110(a) and (c) To Amend the IEX Equities Fee Schedule

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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 215 (Monday, November 9, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 215 (Monday, November 9, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70933-70935]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-22753]


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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-106811; File No. SR-IEX-2026-44]


Self-Regulatory Organizations; Investors Exchange LLC; Notice of 
Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change Pursuant to 
IEX Rule 15.110(a) and (c) To Amend the IEX Equities Fee Schedule

November 4, 2026.
    Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) \1\ of the Securities Exchange Act of 
1934 (the ``Act'') \2\ and Rule 19b-4 thereunder,\3\ notice is hereby 
given that, on October 29, 2026, the Investors Exchange LLC (``IEX'' or 
the ``Exchange'') 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 self-regulatory 
organization. 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\ 15 U.S.C. 78a.
    \3\ 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

    Pursuant to the provisions of Section 19(b)(1) of the Act,\4\ and 
Rule 19b-4 thereunder,\5\ the Exchange is filing with the Commission a 
proposed rule change to amend the Exchange's equities fee schedule 
applicable to Members \6\ (the ``IEX Equities Fee Schedule''),\7\ 
pursuant to IEX Rule 15.110(a) and (c), to introduce an additional 
criteria to qualify for one of its displayed liquidity adding rebate 
tiers. Changes to the IEX Equities Fee Schedule pursuant to this 
proposal are effective upon filing,\8\ and will be operative on 
December 1, 2026.
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    \4\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(1).
    \5\ 17 CFR 240.19b-4.
    \6\ See IEX Rule 1.160(s).
    \7\ See IEX Equities Fee Schedule, available at <a href="https://www.iex.io/resources/trading/fee-schedule">https://www.iex.io/resources/trading/fee-schedule</a>.
    \8\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(A)(ii).
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    The text of the proposed rule change is available at the Exchange's 
website at <a href="https://www.iexexchange.io/resources/regulation/rule-filings">https://www.iexexchange.io/resources/regulation/rule-filings</a> 
and at the principal office of the Exchange.

II. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Purpose of, and the 
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change

    In its filing with the Commission, the self-regulatory organization 
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 self-regulatory organization 
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 the 
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change

1. Purpose
    The Exchange proposes to modify the Transaction Fees section of its 
Fee Schedule, pursuant to IEX Rule 15.110(a) and (c), to introduce an 
additional way to qualify for one of its Displayed Liquidity Adding 
Rebate Tiers \9\ for executions priced at or above $1.00 per share.\10\ 
Specifically, the Exchange proposes to modify Displayed Liquidity 
Adding Rebate Tier 8 to introduce an additional eligibility basis, as 
described below. IEX is not proposing to change the amounts of any 
rebates or fees, or the overall tiering pricing structure in the 
Transaction Fees section of the Fee Schedule.
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    \9\ See footnote 4 to the Transaction Fees, Base Rates table and 
Fee Code Combinations and Associated Fees table of the IEX Equities 
Fee Schedule, supra note 4.
    \10\ Nothing in this rule filing affects trades below $1.00 per 
share (``sub-dollar trades''), which will continue to receive a 
rebate equal to 0.15% of the total dollar value of the execution 
(``TDV'') for displayed liquidity adding executions. Sub-dollar 
trades will continue to have no impact on any of the rebate or fee 
tier calculations for trades with an execution price of $1.00 per 
share or more.
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Displayed Liquidity Adding Rebate Tiers
    IEX currently offers Members nine Displayed Liquidity Adding Rebate 
Tiers based on the Member's trading or quoting activity in the 
immediately preceding month.\11\ These rebates,

[[Page 70934]]

which apply equally to executions of Tape A, Tape B, and Tape C 
securities, are as follows:
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    \11\ IEX Equities Fee Schedule, supra note 4, Base Rates table 
(Base Fee Code ML) and Fee Code Combinations and Associated Fees 
table, footnote 4. Pursuant to Rule 610(d) of Regulation NMS, all 
IEX Equities transaction fees and rebates are determinable at the 
time of execution. Accordingly, all transaction fees and rebates 
that depend on a Member's trading or quoting activity are based on 
that activity in the immediately preceding month. See Securities 
Exchange Act Release No. 104541 (January 5, 2026), 91 FR 737 
(January 8, 2026) (SR-IEX-2025-39) (amending the Exchange's fee 
schedule applicable to Members to comply with Rule 610(d) of 
Regulation NMS).
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    <bullet> Tier 1: provides Member the Exchange's base fee of FREE 
for all displayed liquidity adding executions priced at or above $1.00 
per share (``Added Displayed Liquidity'') if the Member added less than 
5,000,000 ADV \12\ of displayed liquidity.
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    \12\ The IEX Equities Fee Schedule defines ``ADV'' as average 
daily volume calculated as the number of shares added or removed (as 
applicable) that execute at or above $1.00 per share, per day. ADV 
is calculated on a monthly basis, based on trading activity in the 
immediately preceding month, unless otherwise indicated in the Fee 
Schedule. Routed shares executed away from IEX, and shares executed 
in auctions and the Opening Process, are not included in the ADV 
calculation. The Exchange also excludes from its calculation of ADV 
any trading day on which the Exchange's system experiences a 
disruption that lasts for more than 60 minutes during Regular Market 
Hours and any day with a scheduled early market close. With prior 
notice to the Exchange, a Member may aggregate its ADV with other 
Members with which it is affiliated pursuant to Rule 12b-2 under the 
Act. See IEX Equities Fee Schedule, supra note 4, Transaction Fees, 
Definitions and Notes.
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    <bullet> Tier 2: provides Member a rebate of $0.0010 per share for 
all Added Displayed Liquidity if the Member traded at least 10,000,000 
non-displayed ADV \13\ and less than 20,000,000 non-displayed ADV.
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    \13\ ``Non-displayed ADV'' refers to executions with the 
following Fee Code Combinations: MI, MIB, TI, TIB, TIY, TIYB, TIR, 
TLW, TLWB, and MIA. See IEX Equities Fee Schedule, supra note 4, 
Transaction Fees, Definitions.
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    <bullet> Tier 3: provides Member a rebate of $0.0014 per share for 
all Added Displayed Liquidity if the Member: (1) added at least 
5,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity and less than 15,000,000 ADV of 
displayed liquidity; or (2) traded at least 20,000,000 non-displayed 
ADV; or (3) had an NBBO Time \14\ of at least 50% in at least 250 
ETPs.\15\
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    \14\ ``NBBO Time'' means the Member's Percent Time at NBB plus 
the Member's Percent Time at NBO. ``Percent Time at NBB'' and 
``Percent Time at NBO'' mean, respectively, the aggregate of the 
percentage of time during Regular Market Hours in which a Member has 
a displayed order of at least one round lot at the national best bid 
(``NBB'') or the national best offer (``NBO''). When applied to 
transaction fees or rebates, NBBO Time is calculated using the 
Member's quoting activity in the immediately preceding month. For 
tiers that include NBBO Time as a required criterion, the Exchange 
determines on a daily basis the number of securities in which the 
Member met the NBBO Time threshold for that day and, at the end of 
the month, takes the average (rounded to the nearest whole number) 
of those daily counts. See IEX Equities Fee Schedule, supra note 4, 
Transaction Fees, Definitions and Notes.
    \15\ The term ``ETPs'' includes any security traded on the 
Exchange, under unlisted trading privileges pursuant to Rule 19b-
4(e) of the Act, as a UTP Derivative Security pursuant to IEX Rule 
16.160.
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    <bullet> Tier 4: provides Member a rebate of $0.0016 per share for 
all Added Displayed Liquidity if the Member: (1) added at least 
15,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity and less than 20,000,000 ADV of 
displayed liquidity; or (2) had an NBBO Time of at least 50% in at 
least 750 ETPs.
    <bullet> Tier 5: provides Member a rebate of $0.0018 per share for 
all Added Displayed Liquidity if the Member: (1) added at least 
20,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity and less than 25,000,000 ADV of 
displayed liquidity; or (2) traded at least 30,000,000 non-displayed 
ADV.
    <bullet> Tier 6: provides Member a rebate of $0.0020 per share for 
all Added Displayed Liquidity if the Member: (1) added at least 
25,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity and less than 30,000,000 ADV of 
displayed liquidity; or (2) traded at least 40,000,000 non-displayed 
ADV.
    <bullet> Tier 7: provides Member a rebate of $0.0021 per share for 
all Added Displayed Liquidity if the Member added at least 30,000,000 
ADV of displayed liquidity and less than 40,000,000 ADV of displayed 
liquidity.
    <bullet> Tier 8: provides Member a rebate of $0.0022 per share for 
all Added Displayed Liquidity if the Member added at least 40,000,000 
ADV of displayed liquidity and less than 50,000,000 ADV of displayed 
liquidity.
    <bullet> Tier 9: provides Member a rebate of $0.0023 per share for 
all Added Displayed Liquidity if the Member added at least 50,000,000 
ADV of displayed liquidity.
    The Exchange proposes to modify Tier 8 to add an additional means 
of qualifying for that rebate tier. Specifically, the Exchange proposes 
to extend the Tier 8 pricing incentive to Members that add at least 
35,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity, if at least 25,000,000 ADV of 
the Added Displayed Liquidity was in non-ETP securities. The proposed 
change is designed to incentivize Members to increase their non-ETP 
quoting. Thus, under the proposed new qualifying criteria, a Member 
would qualify for Tier 8 in the current month if, in the immediately 
preceding month, it added at least 35,000,000 ADV of displayed 
liquidity, of which at least 25,000,000 ADV was in non-ETP securities. 
If a Member qualifies for Tier 8 through the new qualification 
criteria, the associated rebate of $0.0022 per share will be applied to 
the Member's transactions in the same manner as they currently are: to 
the Member's executions of displayed liquidity adding orders priced at 
or above $1.00 per share.
    Accordingly, the Exchange proposes to amend the description of Base 
Fee Code ML (``Add displayed liquidity'') in the Base Rates table and 
to amend the Tier 8 row in the Displayed Liquidity Adding Rebate Tier 
table in Footnote 4 to the Transaction Fees section of the IEX Equities 
Fee Schedule, to introduce the new alternative means of qualifying for 
Tier 8, which is described above.
    IEX is proposing no other changes to the IEX Equities Fee Schedule. 
As noted above, changes to the IEX Equities Fee Schedule pursuant to 
this proposal are effective upon filing and will be operative on 
December 1, 2026.
2. Statutory Basis
    IEX believes that the proposed rule change is consistent with the 
provisions of Section 6(b) \16\ of the Act in general, and furthers the 
objectives of Sections 6(b)(4) \17\ and 6(b)(5) \18\ of the Act in 
particular, in that it is designed to provide for the equitable 
allocation of reasonable dues, fees, and other charges among its 
Members and other persons using its facilities, and is not designed to 
permit unfair discrimination between customers, issuers, brokers, or 
dealers. For the reasons set forth below, the Exchange believes that 
the proposed rule change is reasonable, equitable, and not designed to 
permit unfair discrimination.
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    \16\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b).
    \17\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(4).
    \18\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(5).
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    The Exchange 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. Based 
upon informal discussions with market participants, IEX believes that 
Members and other market participants may be more incentivized to send 
displayed orders to IEX if the proposed fee structure were adopted. 
Accordingly, IEX has designed the proposed changes to the rebate tier's 
qualification criteria to attract and incentivize displayed orders 
while providing a fee structure that is fair, equitable, and not 
designed to permit unfair discrimination because the proposed changes 
will apply equally to all Members who satisfy the criteria.
    The Exchange believes that the proposed new criteria for qualifying 
for Displayed Liquidity Adding Rebate Tier 8 is reasonable because it 
is designed to incentivize Members to add a meaningful volume of 
displayed non-ETP liquidity on IEX. The proposed modification to the 
qualifying criteria for Displayed Liquidity Adding Rebate Tier 8 is 
within the range of rebates

[[Page 70935]]

offered by competing exchanges, and thus the Exchange does not believe 
that the proposal raises any new or novel issues not already considered 
by the Commission in the context of other exchanges' fees.
    Finally, to the extent this proposed fee change is successful in 
incentivizing the entry and execution of displayed non-ETP orders on 
IEX, such greater non-ETP liquidity will benefit all market 
participants by increasing price discovery and price formation as well 
as market quality and execution opportunities in those non-ETP 
securities. And, as discussed above, IEX does not believe that any 
aspect of this proposal raises new or novel issues not already 
considered by the Commission.

B. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement on Burden on Competition

    IEX does not believe that the proposed rule change will result in 
any burden on competition that is not necessary or appropriate in 
furtherance of the purposes of the Act. The Exchange does not believe 
that the proposed rule change will impose any burden on intermarket 
competition that is not necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the 
purposes of the Act. The Exchange operates in a highly competitive 
market in which market participants can readily favor competing venues 
if fee schedules at other venues are viewed as more favorable. 
Consequently, the Exchange believes that the degree to which IEX fees 
could impose any burden on competition is extremely limited, and does 
not believe that such fees would burden competition between Members or 
competing venues. Moreover, as noted in the Statutory Basis section, 
the Exchange does not believe that the proposed changes raise any new 
or novel issues not already considered by the Commission.
    The Exchange does not believe that the proposed rule change will 
impose any burden on intramarket competition that is not necessary or 
appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the Act because, while 
different rebates and fees are assessed on Members, these rebate and 
fee tiers are not based on the type of Member entering the orders that 
match, but rather on the Member's own trading activity on the Exchange. 
Further, the proposed fee change is intended to encourage market 
participants to bring increased order flow to the Exchange and 
contribute to the public price discovery process, which benefits all 
market participants.

C. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement on Comments on the Proposed 
Rule Change Received From Members, Participants, or Others

    Written comments were neither solicited nor received.

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)(ii) \19\ of the Act.
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    \19\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(A)(ii).
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    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 shall institute proceedings under 
Section 19(b)(2)(B) \20\ of the Act to determine whether the proposed 
rule change should be approved or disapproved.
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    \20\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(2)(B).
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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="https://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml">https://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml</a>); or
    <bullet> Send an email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#2a585f464f07494547474f445e596a594f49044d455c"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="80f2f5ece5ade3efedede5eef4f3c0f3e5e3aee7eff6">[email&#160;protected]</span></a>. Please include 
File Number SR-IEX-2026-44 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-IEX-2026-44. 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="https://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml">https://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml</a>). Copies of the filing will be available for inspection and 
copying at the principal office of the Exchange. Do not include 
personal identifiable information in submissions; you should submit 
only information that you wish to make available publicly. We may 
redact in part or withhold entirely from publication submitted material 
that is obscene or subject to copyright protection. All submissions 
should refer to file number SR-IEX-2026-44 and should be submitted on 
or before November 30, 2026.

    For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, 
pursuant to delegated authority.\21\
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    \21\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(12).
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Sherry R. Haywood,
Assistant Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2026-22753 Filed 11-6-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011-01-P


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