Rule 30b1-9 (2023) Supporting Statement (Names Rule Final)

OMB CONTROL NUMBER: 3235-0730
SUPPORTING STATEMENT
For the Paperwork Reduction Act Information Collection Submission for
Rule 30b1-9 and Form N-PORT
A.

JUSTIFICATION
1.

Necessity for the Information Collection

Section 30(b) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 [15 U.S.C. 80a-30(b)]
(“Act”) provides that “[e]very registered investment company shall file with the
Commission…such information, documents, and reports (other than financial
statements), as the Commission may require to keep reasonably current the information
and documents contained in the registration statement of such company…” Final rule
30b1-9 under the Act [17 CFR 270.30b1-9], entitled “Monthly Report,” provides that
each registered management investment company or exchange-traded fund organized as a
unit investment trust, or series thereof, other than a registered open-end management
investment company that is regulated as a money market fund under rule 2a-7 [17 CFR
270.2a-7] or a small business investment company registered on Form N-5 [17 CFR
239.24 and 274.5], must file a monthly report of portfolio holdings on Form N-PORT [17
CFR 274.150], current as of the last business day, or last calendar day, of the month. 1
Form N-PORT requires funds to report portfolio holdings information in a
structured, XML format. The form is filed electronically using the Commission’s
electronic filing system (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval or
“EDGAR”). Consistent with the current portfolio disclosure regime, only information
reported for the third month of each fund’s fiscal quarter on Form N-PORT is made

1

See Investment Company Reporting Modernization, Investment Company Act Release No. 32314
(October 16, 2016).

publicly available, and such information is not made public until 60 days after the end of
the third month of the fund’s fiscal quarter. This approach is intended to minimize the
harm of free-riding and front running activity that might occur with more frequent or
rapid public disclosure.
On September 20, 2023, the Commission adopted amendments to Form N-PORT
(“Names Rule Adoption”) to include a new reporting item regarding the 80% investment
policy that a fund would adopt in compliance with rule 35d-1 under the Act. 2 There is
also a new Form N-PORT reporting item requiring a fund subject to the 80% investment
policy requirement to indicate, with respect to each portfolio investment, whether the
investment is included in the fund’s calculation of assets in the fund’s 80% basket. 3 The
final amendments contain some modifications from the proposal. First, the final Form NPORT amendments modify the proposed reporting approach by requiring reported
information for the third month of each calendar quarter, instead of for every month. This
modified reporting frame corresponds with the period for review that will otherwise be
mandated by the final amendments. Secondly, the final amendments add a new reporting
item, in which funds will be required to report the definitions of terms used in a fund’s
name. Lastly, we did not adopt the proposed requirement that funds report the number of
days that that the value of the fund’s 80% basket fell below 80% of the value of the
fund’s total assets during the reporting period.

2

3

See 17 CFR 270.35d-1. A policy that a fund must adopt under rule 35d-1 is referred to as an “80%
investment policy” and the fund’s investments invested in accordance with this policy as the
fund’s “80% basket.”
See Investment Company Names, Investment Company Act Release No. 35000 (September 20,
2023) (“Names Rule Adopting Release”).

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2.

Purpose and Use of the Information Collection

The title for the collection of information is: Rule 30b1-9 and Form N-PORT. The
information provided in reports on Form N-PORT will be used by the Commission in its
regulatory, disclosure review, inspection, and policymaking roles. Unlike many other
federal information collections, which are primarily for the use and benefit of the
collecting agency, this information collection will also be for the use and benefit of
investors. The Commission will make information reported for the third month of each
fund’s fiscal quarter on Form N-PORT publicly available.
3.

Consideration Given to Information Technology

The Commission’s EDGAR electronic filing system is designed to automate the
filing, processing and dissemination of full disclosure filings. The system permits filers to
transmit filings to the Commission electronically. This automation has increased the
speed, accuracy and availability of information, generating benefits to investors and
financial markets. Reports on Form N-PORT are filed with the Commission
electronically on EDGAR. The public may access filings on EDGAR through the
Commission’s website (http://www.sec.gov) or at EDGAR terminals located at the
Commission’s public reference rooms.
4.

Duplication

The Commission periodically evaluates rule-based reporting and recordkeeping
requirements for duplication, and reevaluates them whenever it proposes a rule or a

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change in a rule. The information collection required by the amendments to Form NPORT is generally not duplicated elsewhere.
5.

Effect on Small Entities

The requirements for reports on Form N-PORT will not distinguish between small
entities and other funds in terms of what information will be required to be reported,
including the information required by the amendments. The Commission believes that
imposing different reporting requirements on smaller funds is not consistent with investor
protection and the purposes of portfolio holdings reports. Differing reporting
requirements will not provide comparable information about portfolio holdings held by
small entities and other funds that could be used by Commission staff to identify trends
and outliers and by investors to make informed investment decisions.
The Commission reviews all rules periodically, as required by the Regulatory
Flexibility Act, to identify methods to minimize recordkeeping or reporting requirements
affecting small entities.
6.

Consequences of Not Conducting Collection

Funds are required to file reports on Form N-PORT with the Commission no later
than 30 days after the end of each month. Less frequent collection would mean that
current information will not be available to the Commission.
7.

Inconsistencies with Guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2)

Rule 30b1-9 requires funds to submit reports on Form N-PORT on a monthly
basis. Given the rapidly changing composition of fund portfolios, monthly reports are

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necessary to ensure that the Commission receives timely and accurate portfolio holdings
information.
8.

Consultation Outside the Agency

Before adopting the proposed amendments to Form N-PORT in the Names Rule
Proposal, the Commission received and evaluated public comments on the proposal and
its collection of information requirements. Moreover, the Commission and the staff of the
Division of Investment Management participate in an ongoing dialogue with
representatives of the investment company industry through public conferences,
meetings, and informal exchanges. These various forums provide the Commission and
the staff with a means of ascertaining and acting upon paperwork burdens confronting the
industry. The Commission did not receive public comment regarding the PRA estimates
for the amendments to Form N-PORT in the proposing release, but it did receive
comments on the overall costs and burdens associated with this aspect of the proposal.
These comments were considered by the Commission as discussed in the Names Rule
Adopting Release, and the Commission adjusted the proposal’s estimated annual burden
hours and total time costs in consideration of these comments as well as the changes from
the proposed requirements. The Commission’s solicitation of public comments included
estimating and requesting public comments on the burden estimates for all information
collections under this OMB control number (i.e., both changes associated with the
rulemaking and other burden updates).
9.

Payment or Gift

Not applicable.
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10.

Confidentiality

Not applicable.
11.

Sensitive Questions

No information of a sensitive nature, including social security numbers, will be
required under this collection of information. The information collection collects basic
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) that may include names, job titles, work
addresses and telephone numbers. However, the agency has determined that the
information collection does not constitute a system of record for purposes of the Privacy
Act. Information is not retrieved by a personal identifier. In accordance with Section 208
of the E-Government Act of 2002, the agency has conducted a Privacy Impact
Assessment (PIA) of the EDGAR system, in connection with this collection of
information. The EDGAR PIA, published on 1/29/2016, is provided as a supplemental
document and is also available at https://www.sec.gov/privacy.
12.

Burden of Information Collection

The following estimates of average burden hours and costs are made solely for
purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act (“PRA”) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) and are not
derived from a comprehensive or even representative survey or study of the cost of the
Commission rules and forms.
Preparing reports of portfolio holdings on Form N-PORT is mandatory for all
management investment companies (other than money market funds and small business
investment companies) and UITs that operate as ETFs and is a collection of information
under the PRA. We estimate that 11,980 entities will be required to submit reports on
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Form N-PORT. We estimate that 35% of funds will file reports on Form N-PORT in
house and the remaining 65% of funds will retain the services of a third party to prepare
and file reports on Form N-PORT on the fund's behalf.
The information required by Form N-PORT must be data-tagged in XML format.
Responses to the reporting requirements will be kept confidential, subject to the
provisions of applicable law, for reports filed with respect to the first two months of each
quarter; the third month of the quarter will not be kept confidential, but made public 60
days after the quarter end, unless otherwise stated in the form. Form N-PORT is designed
to assist the Commission its regulatory, disclosure review, inspection, and policymaking
roles, and to help investors and other market participants better assess different fund
products.
Table 1 below summarizes our PRA burden estimates associated with filing Form
N-PORT, including the recently-adopted amendments to Form N-PORT.

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Table 1: Form N-PORT PRA ESTIMATES
Initial
hours

Annual
hours1

Wage rate2

Internal time
costs

Annual external
cost burden

$15,316,455

$4,684,296

CURRENTLY APROVED BURDENS
Preparing and Filing
Reports on Form N-PORT
Generally

$344.19 (estimate of
wage rate in most recently
approved supporting
statement)

44,500

Number of Responses

2,696

2,696

2,696

Current Burden
Requirement

1,839,903
hours

$654,658,
288

$113,858,133

$3,204

$9926

x 9,996 funds

x 9,996 funds

$32,027,184

$9,916,032

PROPOPROPOSED BURDENSED BURDENS
New Reporting About
80% Investment Policy3

4 hours

$356
(blend of compliance
attorney and senior
programmer)

x 9,996
funds5

Number of Funds
Total New Burden for
New Reporting About 80%
Investment Policy (I)
Investments to be
Included in a Fund’s 80%
Basket4

9 hours

89,964 hours
4 hours

10 hours

X 9,996
funds5

Number of Funds
Total New Burden for
Investments to be
Included in a Fund’s 80%
Basket (II)

$3,560

$356
(rate for compliance
attorney and senior
programmer)

99,960 hours

$9926

X 9,996
funds

x 9,996 funds

$35,585,760

$9,916,032

TOTAL PROPOSED ESTIMATED BURDENS INCLUDING AMENDMENTS
Total New Annual
Burden
(I + II)

189,924
hours

$67,612,944

$19,832,064

FINAL ESTIMATED BURDENS
New Reporting About
80% Investment Policy3

4 hours

Total New Burden for
New Reporting About 80%
Investment Policy (I)

Number of Funds
Total New Burden for
Investments to be

$406
(blend of compliance
attorney and senior
programmer)

x 9,926
funds7

Number of Funds

Investments to be
Included in a Fund’s 80%
Basket4

2 hours

19,852 hours
8 hours

$812
x 9,926
funds
$8,059,912

7 hours

$406
(rate for compliance
attorney and senior
programmer)

X 9,926
funds7
69,482 hours

8

$2,842

$1,1306
x 9,926

funds

$11,216,380

$1,1306

X 9,926
funds

x 9,926 funds

$28,209,692

$11,216,380

Included in a Fund’s 80%
Basket (II)
TOTAL FINAL ESTIMATED BURDENS INCLUDING AMENDMENTS
Total New Annual
Burden
(I + II)
Revised Aggregate
Annual Burden Estimates

89,334 hours

$36,269,604

$22,432,760

1,929,237
hours

$690,927,89
2

$136,290,893

Notes:
1. Includes initial burden estimates annualized over a 3-year period.
2. The estimated wage figures are based on published rates for the professionals described in this chart, modified to account
for an 1800-hour work-year and inflation. The estimates for the proposed and final burdens were multiplied by 5.35 to account for
bonuses, firm size, employee benefits, and overhead. See Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s Report on
Management & Professional Earnings in the Securities Industry 2013.
3. This burden corresponds to the requirement for a fund to report the value of its 80% basket as a percentage of the value of
its assets. The proposed estimate also reflects the burden associated with the requirement for funds to report the number of days that
the value of the 80% basket fell below 80% of the value of the fund’s total assets. Because we are not adopting this requirement under
the final rule, the final annual hours burden estimate has been reduced by 33% compared to the proposed estimate. The final annual
hours estimate has also been reduced by a factor of 3 to reflect the modified reporting timeframe under the final amendments (i.e.
quarterly as opposed to monthly). Accordingly, the adjustment from proposed annual hours burden estimate to the final estimate reflects
the following calculation: 9 hours x (2/3) = 6 hours /3 = 2 hours.
4. This burden corresponds to the requirement for funds that are required to adopt 80% policies to indicate, with respect to
each portfolio investment, whether the investment is included in the fund’s calculation of assets in the fund’s 80% basket; and for the
final estimate (but not the proposed estimate), the requirement for funds to report definitions of the terms used in their names. Our final
estimate of the initial hours burden has been increased by a factor of 2 compared to the proposed estimate to reflect costs associated
with systems and operational modifications that may be required for compliance with these requirements. Our final estimate of the
annual hours burden also reflects these increased costs compared to the proposed estimate; however it has been reduced in order to
reflect the modified reporting timeframe under the final amendments (i.e. quarterly as opposed to monthly), resulting in an overall
estimate for the annual hours burden that is lower that the proposed estimate. Specifically, the adjustment from the proposed annual
hours burden estimate to the final estimate reflects the following calculation: 10 hours x 2 = 20 hours /3 = 6.67 (rounded to 7 hours).
5. The currently-approved PRA burden for rule 35d-1 was based on the Commission’s estimate that 83% of funds were
covered by rule 35d-1. The Commission estimated that 75% of funds would be covered by our proposed rule amendments. The prior PRA
burden was based on an estimate using a different analytical approach than we are now employing. The Commission estimated that
62% of funds are currently subject to rule 35d-1 and that the proposed rule amendments would increase this estimate to 75% of funds.
The Commission estimated, across approximately 14,001 open-end and closed-end funds registered with the Commission, not including
money market funds, that there would have been approximately 10,394 funds that have names that would be covered by the proposed
rule amendments, or 75% of funds covered by the rule amendments (10,223 mutual funds (other than money market funds) + 2,320
non-UIT ETFs = 12,543 open end funds + 736 registered closed-end funds + 49 UITs = 13,328 funds x 75% = 9,996 funds).
6. The estimated burdens at proposal were based on the estimated wage rate of $496/hour, and at adoption are based on
the estimated wage rate of $565/hour, for 2 hours, for outside legal services. The Commission’s estimates of the relevant wage rate for
external time costs, such as outside legal services, take into account staff experience, a variety of sources including general information
websites, and adjustments for inflation.
7. Based on our current analysis, we estimate that that 60% of funds are currently subject to rule 35d-1, and that the final
amendments will increase this estimate to 76% of funds. The Commission estimates, across approximately 13,061 open-end and
closed-end funds registered with the Commission, not including money market funds, that there will be approximately 9,926 funds that
have names that will be covered by the proposed rule amendments, or 76% of the funds covered by the rule amendments (9,533 mutual
funds (other than money market funds) + 2,735 non-UIT ETFs + = 12,268 open end funds + registered closed-end funds + 45 UITs =
13,061 funds x 76% = 10,318 funds).

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OMB CONTROL NUMBER: 3235-0730
13.

Cost to Respondents

Cost burden is the cost of goods and services purchased to prepare and update
filings on Form N-PORT, such as for licensing software solutions or for the services of
external service providers. The cost burden does not include the hour burden discussed in
Item 12. Estimates are based on the Commission’s experience with the filing of
registration forms. As discussed above, we estimate a total of $136,290,893 in costs to
respondents.
14.

Cost to the Federal Government

The annual cost of reviewing and processing disclosure documents, including new
registration statements, post-effective amendments, proxy statements, shareholder
reports, and other filings of investment companies amounted to approximately $29
million in fiscal year 2022, based on the Commission’s computation of the value of staff
time devoted to this activity and related overhead.
15.

Change in Burden

The changes to N-PORT as adopted in the Names Rule Adopting Release will
result in increases in the burdens on reporting entities. These changes in burden also
reflect the Commission’s revision and update of burden estimates for all information
collections under this OMB control number (whether or not associated with rulemaking
changes), and the Commission requested public comment on all information collection
burden estimates for this OMB control number. As summarized in Table 1 above, the
estimated hourly burden associated with Form N-PORT would increase from 1,839,903
hours to 1,929,237 hours (an increase of 89,334 hours). The internal time cost would
increase from $654,658,288 to $690,927,892 (an increase of $36,269,604). The annual

external cost burden would increase from $113,858,133 to $136,290,893 (an increase of
$22,432,760).
16.

Information Collection Planned for Statistical Purposes

Not applicable.
17.

Approval to Omit OMB Expiration Date

We request authorization to omit the expiration date on the electronic version of
the form for design and IT project scheduling reasons. The OMB control number will be
displayed.
18.
Submission

Exceptions to Certification Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act

Not applicable.
B.

COLLECTIONS OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS

Not applicable.

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