Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall
Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank Act”) added
new section 5h to the Commodity Exchange Act to impose requirements
concerning the registration and operation of swap execution
facilities (“SEFs”), which the Commission has incorporated in part
37 of its regulations. The information collections under this
Control Number are necessary for the Commission to evaluate whether
SEFs, or entities applying to become SEFs, comply with the part 37
regulatory requirements.
The Commission is not proposing
any program changes or adjustments, but the Commission is revising
its burden hour estimates based on (a) its observation of SEFs and
feedback from market participants, as SEFs did not exist prior to
either the Dodd-Frank Act or the Commission’s original 3038-0074
submission, and (b) the revised number of 23 currently-registered
SEFs (the Commission had initially estimated that there would be 35
SEFs). The Commission makes two further observations: First, in the
supporting statement to this submission, the Commission is
clarifying that applicants for permanent SEF registration incur
approximately 300 burden hours. However, as discussed above, this
300-hour estimate does not represent a new information collection
burden or adjustment for applicants for SEF registration. Rather,
as noted above, while the Commission did consider the burden hours
related to the SEF application process in its original information
collection submission for this OMB Control Number, the Commission
did not explicitly distinguish the burden hours related to the
registration process for SEF applicants from the Commission’s
estimate of the on-going annual burden hours for registered SEFs,
but rather provided an aggregate number. For the sake of clarity,
the Commission is explicitly distinguishing in its Supporting
Statement between the burden hours for registered SEFs and
applicants for SEF registration. Second, the Commission is
clarifying that registered SEFs incur approximately 563 hours in
connection with the information collection requirements under §
37.6(b), which requires SEFs to provide counterparties with
transaction confirmations and obtain copies of the applicable
underlying swap agreements. However, this requirement does not
represent a new information collection burden or adjustment.
Rather, the Commission is separately identifying this requirement
in its Supporting Statement for the sake of clarity to allow the
reader to understand more clearly the nature of a SEF’s information
collection obligations. By creating a separate line item in the
Table in Attachment A, the Commission does not mean to imply that
SEFs’ information collection obligations under § 37.6(b) are new or
not otherwise already part of the general Designation and
Compliance obligations. For calculating the total number of hours,
responses, and hours per response, the Commission is aggregating
the burden hours for both registered SEFs as well as applicants for
SEF registration and dividing by 27 (23 registered SEFs + 4
applicants for SEF registration = 27 total respondents).
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.