Self-Regulatory Organizations; Investors Exchange LLC; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change To Amend the Exchange's Fee Schedule Concerning Transaction Pricing

<NOTICE> SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION <DEPDOC>[Release No. 34-103697; File No. SR-IEX-2025-18]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Self-Regulatory Organizations; Investors Exchange LLC; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change To Amend the Exchange's Fee Schedule Concerning Transaction Pricing</SUBJECT> <DATE>August 13, 2025.</DATE> Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1)  <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Act”)  <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> and Rule 19b-4 thereunder, <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> notice is hereby given that, on July 31, 2025, the Investors Exchange LLC (“IEX” or the “Exchange”) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) the proposed rule change as described in Items I, II and III below, which Items have been prepared by the self-regulatory organization. The Commission is publishing this notice to solicit comments on the proposed rule change from interested persons. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(1). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  15 U.S.C. 78a. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  17 CFR 240.19b-4. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Terms of Substance of the Proposed Rule Change</HD> Pursuant to the provisions of Section 19(b)(1) under the Act, <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> and Rule 19b-4 thereunder, <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> the Exchange is filing with the Commission a proposed rule change to amend the Exchange's fee schedule applicable to Members  <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> (the “Fee Schedule”  <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> ) pursuant to IEX Rule 15.110(a) and (c) to modify the required criteria for one of its Displayed Liquidity Adding Rebate Tiers for executions priced at or above $1.00 per share. Changes to the Fee Schedule pursuant to this proposal are effective upon filing, <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> and will be operative on August 1, 2025. <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(1). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  17 CFR 240.19b-4. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> IEX Rule 1.160(s). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Investors Exchange Fee Schedule, available at <E T="03">https://www.iexexchange.io/resources/trading/fee-schedule.</E> </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>  15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(A)(ii). </FTNT> The text of the proposed rule change is available at the Exchange's website at <E T="03">https://www.iexexchange.io/resources/regulation/rule-filings</E> and at the principal office of the Exchange. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Purpose of, and the Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change</HD> In its filing with the Commission, the self-regulatory organization included statements concerning the purpose of and basis for the proposed rule change and discussed any comments it received on the proposed rule change. The text of these statements may be examined at the places specified in Item IV below. The self-regulatory organization has prepared summaries, set forth in Sections A, B, and C below, of the most significant aspects of such statements. <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Purpose of, and the Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD3">1. Purpose</HD> The Exchange proposes to modify its Fee Schedule, pursuant to IEX Rule 15.110(a) and (c), to modify the required criteria for one of its Displayed Liquidity Adding Rebate Tiers for executions priced at or above $1.00 to introduce an alternative means of qualifying for the rebate tier. Notably, IEX is not proposing to change the amounts of any rebates or fees. <HD SOURCE="HD3">Displayed Liquidity Adding Rebate Tiers</HD> As reflected in the Transaction Fees section of the Fee Schedule, IEX currently offers Members the following seven Displayed Liquidity Adding Rebate tiers: <EXTRACT> • <E T="03">Tier 1:</E> provides Member the Exchange's base fee of FREE for all displayed liquidity adding executions priced at or above $1.00 per share (“Added Displayed Liquidity”)  <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> if the Member adds less than 3,000,000 ADV  <SU>10</SU> <FTREF/> of displayed liquidity in that month. <FTNT> <SU>9</SU>  Nothing in this rule filing affects trades below $1.00 per share (“subdollar trades”). Any subdollar trade that adds displayed liquidity does not impact the rebate tier calculations and receives a rebate of 0.15% of the total dollar value of the execution. <E T="03">See</E> Securities Exchange Act Release No. 102086 (January 2, 2025), 90 FR 1586 (January 8, 2025) (SR-IEX-2024-30). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>10</SU>  The Fee Schedule defines “ADV” as average daily volume calculated as the number of shares added or removed (as applicable) that execute at or above $1.00 per share, combined, per day, calculated on a monthly basis, subject to certain exclusions. </FTNT> • <E T="03">Tier 2:</E> provides Member a rebate of $0.0010 per share for all Added Displayed Liquidity if the Member trades at least 5,000,000 non-displayed ADV and less than 10,000,000 non-displayed ADV. • <E T="03">Tier 3:</E> provides Member a rebate of $0.0014 per share for all Added Displayed Liquidity if the Member either: adds at least 3,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity and less than 10,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity; or trades at least 10,000,000 non-displayed ADV. • <E T="03">Tier 4:</E> provides Member a rebate of $0.0016 per share for all Added Displayed Liquidity if the Member adds at least 10,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity and less than 15,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity. • <E T="03">Tier 5:</E> provides Member a rebate of $0.0018 per share for all Added Displayed Liquidity if the Member adds at least 15,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity and less than 20,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity. • <E T="03">Tier 6:</E> provides Member a rebate of $0.0020 per share for all Added Displayed Liquidity if the Member either: adds at least 20,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity and less than 30,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity; or trades at least 20,000,000 non-displayed ADV. • <E T="03">Tier 7:</E> provides Member a rebate of $0.0022 per share for all Added Displayed Liquidity if the Member adds at least 30,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity. </EXTRACT> IEX is proposing to modify the required criteria for qualifying for Displayed Liquidity Adding Rebate Tier 5 (“Tier 5”), so that Members will have two ways in which they could qualify for Tier 5: (1) the current method, in which a Member qualifies for the rebate tier by adding at least 15,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity and less than 20,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity; or (2) the proposed new method, in which a Member would qualify for the rebate tier by trading at least 15,000,000 non-displayed ADV, irrespective of its Added Displayed Liquidity. In effect, this proposed additional means of qualifying for Tier 5 aligns Tier 5 with current Displayed Liquidity Adding Rebate Tiers 3 and 6; Tier 3 allows Members to qualify for that tier either: (1) by adding at least 3,000,000 and less than 10,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity or (2) by trading at least 10,000,000 non-displayed ADV, irrespective of their Added Displayed Liquidity, and Tier 6 allows Members to qualify for that tier either: (1) by adding at least 20,000,000 and less than 30,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity or (2) by trading at least 20,000,000 non-displayed ADV, irrespective of their Added Displayed Liquidity. Accordingly, IEX proposes to update its Fee Schedule to make two revisions to reflect the proposed changes to Tier 5. First, the Exchange proposes to amend the Fee Schedule's Base Rates table to update the description and fees associated with Base Fee Code ML (“Add displayed liquidity”). As amended, the Base Rates table will continue to list seven base rates for Fee Code ML, but the description of the base rate paid for a Member that adds at least 15,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity and less than 20,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity will state that a Member also can qualify for that base rate by trading at least 15,000,000 non-displayed ADV. Similarly, IEX proposes to update the description of Tier 5 in Footnote 4 to the Transaction Fees section. As proposed, Footnote 4 will be amended to reflect that a Member can qualify for Tier 5 either by adding at least 15,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity and less than 20,000,000 ADV of displayed liquidity, or by trading at least 15,000,000 non-displayed ADV. IEX notes that this model of offering volume-based rebates is consistent with the rebates offered by competitor exchanges. <SU>11</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>11</SU>   <E T="03">See, e.g.,</E> Cboe BZX Inc. Fee Schedule (Effective May 19, 2025), available at <E T="03">https://www.cboe.com/us/equities/membership/fee_schedule/bzx/;</E> MEMX Equities Fee Schedule (Effective May 1, 2025), available at <E T="03">https://info.memxtrading.com/equities-trading-resources/us-equities-fee-schedule/;</E> Nasdaq Equity VII; New York Stock Exchange Price List 2025 (as of April 1, 2025), available at <E T="03">https://www.nyse.com/publicdocs/nyse/markets/nyse/NYSE_Price_List.pdf.</E> </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD3">2. Statutory Basis</HD> IEX believes that the proposed rule change is consistent with the provisions of Section 6(b)  <SU>12</SU> <FTREF/> of the Act in general, and furthers the objectives of Sections 6(b)(4)  <SU>13</SU> <FTREF/> of the Act, in particular, in that it is designed to provide for the equitable allocation of reasonable dues, fees and other charges among its Members and other persons using its facilities. The Exchange believes that the proposed fee change is reasonable, fair and equitable, and non-discriminatory. <FTNT> <SU>12</SU>  15 U.S.C. 78f. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>13</SU>  15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(4). </FTNT> The Exchange operates in a ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 17k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━