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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 24 / Monday, February 8, 2021 / Notices Plan, which refer to the plan set forth in Rule 970.1NY. In addition, the Exchange proposes to delete Rule 970.1NY in its entirety.

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Implementation The Exchange will announce the implementation date of the proposed rule change in a Trader Update within 60 days of rule approval.
2. Statutory Basis The Exchange believes that its proposal is consistent with Section 6b of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
the Act,16 in general, and furthers the objectives of Section 6b5 of the Act,17 in particular, in that it is designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices, to promote just and equitable principles of trade, to remove impediments to and perfect the mechanism of a free and open market and a national market system, and, in general, to protect investors and the public interest.
The Exchange believes that the proposed elimination of Rule 970.1NY
and references to quote mitigation in Rule 970NY would promote just and equitable principles of trade, as well as serve to remove impediments to and perfect the mechanism of a free and open market because the Exchanges systems capacity is more than sufficient to accommodate any increase in quote traffic to OPRA as a result of the proposed rule change. First, the Exchange believes that the proposed elimination of Rule 970.1NY would promote just and equitable principles of trade, as well as serve to remove impediments to and perfect the mechanism of a free and open market because the proposed change would increase transparency and enhance price discovery. Specifically, as proposed, all Market Maker quotes including those in inactive series under the current Rule would be displayed and reflected in the market to the benefit of all market participants who would be on notice of such liquidity. The Exchange also believes that the proposal would remove the element of potential confusion among market participants by publishing all quotes not just those in active series in the disseminated quote feed.
In addition, the proposed change would promote just and equitable principles of trade, as well as serve to remove impediments to and perfect the mechanism of a free and open market because the Exchanges capacity requests already presume that all series 16 15
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are active. Hence, the Exchange believes that the existing capacity planning at OPRA already factors in quotes in dark series being lit and therefore does not believe that the elimination of this rule and any resulting increase in quote traffic would have a negative impact on capacity.
The Exchange further believes that the existing quote mitigation strategies i.e., monitoring of quoting activity, codification of the OLPP, and refined Market Maker quoting obligations employed by the Exchange serve to reduce the potential for excessive quoting and therefore reduce quote traffic.
Importantly, the circumstances giving rise to the NYSE Arca rule that the Exchange copiedindustry-wide concern about capacity issues related to excessive quoting rateshas subsided given that OPRA capacity has increased exponentially over the last decade coincident with the influx of new options exchanges. In addition, the proposed increase in quote traffic as a result of this proposal is minimal and therefore unlikely to adversely impact the flow of message traffic and/or harm downstream consumers of OPRA data.
As noted above, the increase in quotes message traffic in dark series is already considered in the Exchanges capacity requests to OPRA and already published to downstream users of OPRA data. As such, the Exchange believes the proposed change would not impede the protection of investors and the public interest.
Thus, the Exchange believes there is sufficient capacity at OPRA to accommodate any additional quote traffic that will result from elimination of dark series. The Exchange therefore believes that its proposal will not impact the protection of investors and the public interest.
Finally, as discussed above, the Exchange does not anticipate that its proposal would negatively impact systems capacity. However, to the extent it does, the Exchange has analyzed its capacity and represents that it and the OPRA have the necessary systems capacity to handle any incremental additional traffic associated with this proposed rule change.
B. Self-Regulatory Organizations Statement on Burden on Competition The Exchange does not believe that the proposed rule change will impose any burden on competition that is not necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the Act. Specifically, as discussed above, the Exchange believes that any increase in quote traffic that might be sent to OPRA as a
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result of the proposed rule change would be minimal and should not impact any other exchanges capacity at OPRA. The Exchange likewise believes that there would be no adverse impact on any downstream consumers of OPRA
data given that any increase in quote traffic would be minimal and has already been included in the Exchanges capacity planning requests to OPRA.
Intramarket Competition. The elimination of dark series would increase intra market competition and improve quote quality, because prices and sizes of all Exchange quotations would be sent to OPRA to be published and updated. At present, Market Makers cannot see the internal best bid and offer in a dark series, nor can they improve upon the displayed market to establish price/time priority. This proposal to publish the quotes in inactive series will enhance intramarket competition because Market Makers will be able to submit more competitive quotes.
Intermarket Competition. For reasons similar to those described in the Intramarket Competition section, eliminating the use of dark series and publishing to OPRA the Exchanges previously unpublished quotes on such series would increase competition between markets, because NYSE
Americans quotes would now be visible and included in the calculation of the NBBO. Including all NYSE American quotes in the NBBO including those in dark series, an options participant will know if an order should be sent to NYSE American to get the best price.
Market Makers that use a strategy to match the NBBO will now need to factor NYSE American quotes into their calculations.
C. Self-Regulatory Organizations Statement on Comments on the Proposed Rule Change Received From Members, Participants, or Others No written comments were solicited or received with respect to the proposed rule change.
III. Date of Effectiveness of the Proposed Rule Change and Timing for Commission Action Within 45 days of the date of publication of this notice in the Federal Register or up to 90 days i as the Commission may designate if it finds such longer period to be appropriate and publishes its reasons for so finding or ii as to which the self-regulatory organization consents, the Commission will:
A By order approve or disapprove the proposed rule change, or
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