Extension of Rule 11Ab2-1 and Form SIP

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SUPPORTING STATEMENT
For the Paperwork Reduction Act Information Collection Submission for
Rule 611 (17 CFR 242.611) – Order Protection Rule
OMB Control No. 3235-0600
2026 Extension
A.

JUSTIFICATION
1.

Necessity of Information Collection

On June 9, 2005, the Commission adopted Rule 611 as part of Regulation NMS. 1 Rule
611 is designed to limit the incidence of trade executions at prices inferior to a price displayed on
another market. To achieve this goal, Rule 611 requires any national securities exchange,
national securities association, alternative trading system, exchange market maker, over-thecounter 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-through”).
Rule 611 contains one collection of information. This collection of information is found
in Rule 611(a). Rule 611(a) requires any national securities exchange or national securities
association that operates an SRO trading facility, 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 and maintain written
policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent the execution of a trade-through in its
market, absent an applicable exception and, if relying on an exception, that are reasonably
designed to assure compliance with the terms of the exception.
2.

Purpose and Use of Information Collection

The purpose of the collection of information is to help ensure that national securities
exchanges, national securities associations, alternative trading systems, exchange market makers,
over-the-counter market makers, and other broker-dealers that execute orders internally and their
customers, subscribers, members, and employees, as applicable, generally avoid trade-throughs,
as contemplated by Rule 611. 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 611.

1

See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 51808 (June 9, 2005), 70 FR 37496 (June 29, 2005).

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3.

Consideration Given to Information Technology

Improved information technology would not reduce the burden because each respondent
would still be required to establish policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent tradethroughs suited to any available technology.
4.

Duplication

Not applicable; there is no duplication of information.
5.

Effect on Small Entities

The rule’s requirements are not unduly burdensome on smaller broker-dealers. No other
small entities are affected by the rule.
6.

Consequences of Not Conducting Collection

No collection of information under Rule 611 would undermine the purpose of the rule.
7.

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

There are no special circumstances. This collection is consistent with the guidelines in
5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2).
8.

Consultations Outside the Agency

The required Federal Register notice with a 60-day comment period soliciting comments
on this collection of information was published. No public comments were received.
9.

Payment or Gift

Not applicable.
10.

Confidentiality

Not applicable.
11.

Sensitive Questions

The Information Collection does not collect information about individuals, therefore, a
PIA, SORN, and PAS are not required.

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12.

Information Collection Burden

The Commission staff estimates that it would take approximately 60 hours annually per
respondent to ensure that the policies and procedures established are up-to-date and remain in
compliance with the Commission’s rule: two hours per month of internal legal time and three
hours per month of internal compliance time. The annual aggregate burden for all respondents
combined for this collection of information is estimated to be 18,300 hours [305 respondents 2 x
60 hours annually]. 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. 3
Rule

Burden Type

Number of
Respondents

Rule 611

Recordkeeping 305

Number of
Annual
Responses
Per
Respondent
1

Time Per
Response
(Hours)
60

Total
Burden Per
Burden
Type
(Hours)
18,300

2

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 brokerdealers are both exchange market makers and an OTC market maker or broker-dealer internalizing orders.
20 + 33 + 96 + 225 - 69 = 305 trading centers.

3

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, https://www.bls.gov/oes/; see also Standard Occupational Classification, U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics, https://www.bls.gov/soc/ (describing occupational classification system used by BLS);
Exec. Off. of the President, Off. of Mgmt. & Budget, North American Industry Classification System
(2022), available at https://www.census.gov/naics/reference_files_tools/2022_NAICS_Manual.pdf
(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, https://www.bls.gov/eci/. 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, https://www.bea.gov/data/industries/gross-output-by-industry; Occupational
Employment and Wage Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://www.bls.gov/oes/. The final
product is the occupational hourly rate. See generally Updated Methodology for Calculating Occupational
Hourly Rates (Dec. 19, 2025), available at https://www.sec.gov/files/method-occupational-hourlyrates.pdf.

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13.

Costs to Respondents

The annual cost burden will be zero.4
14.

Costs to Federal Government

Not applicable.
15.

Changes in Burden

The estimated annual hour burden increased from 14,100 hours to 18,300 hours because
the estimated number of respondents increased from 235 to 305.
16.

Information Collections Planned for Statistical Purposes

Not applicable. The information collection is not used for statistical purposes.
17.

Approval to Omit OMB Expiration Date

The Commission is not seeking approval to omit the expiration date.
18.

Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

This collection complies with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.
B.

COLLECTIONS OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS
This collection does not involve statistical methods.

4

The cost burden originally consisted of one-time startup costs that are no longer applicable.