On October 11, 2011, Stock Clearing Corporation of Philadelphia (“SCCP”) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission”) the proposed rule change SR–SCCP–2011–03 pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Act”),
The rule change will permit an amendment to the by-laws of SCCP's parent corporation, The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (“NASDAQ OMX”). NASDAQ OMX is seeking to amend provisions of its by-laws pertaining to the composition of committees of the NASDAQ OMX Board of Directors. First, NASDAQ OMX is amending the compositional requirements of its Audit Committee in Section 4.13(g) to provide that the committee shall include three or more directors. Currently, the provision provides that the Audit Committee shall be composed of either four or five directors. Second, NASDAQ OMX is proposing to amend the compositional requirements of the Nominating & Governance Committee in Section 4.13(h) to replace a requirement that the committee comprise four or five members with a requirement to include two or more members. Third, NASDAQ OMX proposes to delete a paragraph of the by-laws (Section 4.13(k)) that pertains to the qualifications of committee members who are not directors. Finally, NASDAQ OMX is correcting a typographical error in the numbering of the provisions of Section 4.13(h) of the by-laws.
Section 19(b)(2)(B) of the Act directs the Commission to approve a proposed rule change of a self-regulatory organization if it finds that such proposed rule change is consistent with the requirements of the Act and the rules and regulations thereunder applicable to such organization.
The proposed change would allow the NASDAQ OMX Board of Directors (“Board”) to determine the size of its Audit Committee, so long as the Audit Committee includes at least three directors, as well as the size of its Nominating & Governance Committee, so long as the Nominating & Governance Committee includes at least two directors. The proposal is intended to provide greater flexibility to the NASDAQ OMX Board to determine the appropriate size for these committees. The proposal does not change any other compositional requirements of either the Audit Committee or the Nominating & Governance Committee, including independence requirements. Moreover, the Commission notes that the proposal does not alter the application of Section 10A of the Exchange Act
The proposal also deletes an obsolete section from, and corrects a typographical error in, the NASDAQ OMX by-laws, which are clarifying revisions. For the foregoing reasons, the Commission believes that the proposed rule change is consistent with the Act. The proposal also deletes an obsolete section from, and corrects a typographical error in, the NASDAQ OMX by-laws, which are clarifying revisions.
On the basis of the foregoing, the Commission finds that the proposal is consistent with the requirements of the Act and in particular with the requirements of Section 17A of the Act and the rules and regulations thereunder.
For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated authority.