Pursuant to Section 31 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Commission has determined that a mid-year adjustment to the Section 31 transaction fee rate is necessary. Effective on April 1, 2012, the Section 31 transaction fee rate will be set at $22.40 per million.

The Act requires the Commission to adjust the Section 31 fee rate if it estimates that the baseline estimate of the dollar volume of sales of securities that was used to calculate the annual adjusted fee rate for fiscal year 2012 is reasonably likely to be 10 percent (or more) greater or less than the actual dollar volume for fiscal year 2012. The Commission determined the mid-year adjustment using a methodology developed in consultation with the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget, as required by Section 31(j)(2) of the Act. This methodology used market projections based on the most recent information on dollar volume of securities transactions thus far in fiscal year 2012. A copy of the Commission’s order and calculation methodology is available at http://www.sec.gov/rules/other/2012/34-66495.pdf.

This rate change does not apply to the Section 31 assessment on security futures transactions, which will remain at the current rate of $0.0042 per round turn transaction.

The Office of Interpretation and Guidance in the Commission’s Division of Trading and Markets is available for questions on Section 31 at (202) 551-5777, or by e-mail at tradingandmarkets@sec.gov. In addition, useful guidance on Section 31 can be found on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov/divisions/marketreg/sec31feesbasicinfo.htm and http://www.sec.gov/divisions/marketreg/sec31info.htm.