Matters Regarding BNY Mellon (a) Subject to the direction and control of each Fund’s Board and oversight by TRP, and the provisions of this Agreement, BNY Mellon shall provide to each Fund the services listed on Schedule I and any SLDs attached hereto.
(b) In performing hereunder, BNY Mellon shall provide, at its expense (except as otherwise agreed upon in accordance with Section 8 related to BNY Mellon’s compensation hereunder), office space, facilities, equipment, personnel and any other necessary resources. BNY Mellon intends to perform the services under this Agreement from (a) the facilities that TRP has dedicated for use by BNY Mellon to perform the services and (b) various of the locations listed or described in Schedule III (the “Service Locations”). If BNY Mellon intends to provide the services from a location that is in a country in which a Service Location is not then currently located, BNY Mellon will provide reasonable prior notice of such other location to the Fund, and upon delivery of such notice, Schedule III shall be deemed to have been updated without the need for any further action by the parties; provided, however, that in the event that such location is within a country that would cause the Fund or a Fund Affiliate to be in violation of applicable laws, the Fund shall provide notice thereof to BNY Mellon and the Fund and BNY Mellon shall in good faith discuss an appropriate work-around.
(c) BNY Mellon shall not provide any services relating to the management, investment advisory or sub-advisory functions of any Fund, distribution of shares of any Fund or other services normally performed by the Funds’ respective counsel or independent auditors and the services provided by BNY Mellon do not constitute, nor shall they be construed as constituting, legal advice or the provision of legal services for or on behalf of a Fund or any other person, and each Fund acknowledges that BNY Mellon does not provide public accounting or auditing services or advice and will not be making any tax filings, or doing any tax reporting on its behalf, other than those specifically agreed to hereunder. In the event that a Fund desires to receive a new service from BNY Mellon related to the services provided under this Agreement, such Fund shall provide such request to BNY Mellon in writing with such detail as BNY Mellon shall reasonably request. Within a reasonable period of time after any such request relating to any new service, BNY Mellon will provide a proposal to the Fund in writing setting forth the terms under which BNY Mellon is willing to provide such new service. BNY Mellon and the Fund shall negotiate in good faith with respect to each proposal for new services, provided that the Fund shall not be required to accept such proposal. Similarly, with respect to the money market fund reforms announced by the SEC in 2014, the parties hereto agree to review such reforms and negotiate in good faith any related new services or increases in the scope of services provided under this Agreement as may be mutually agreed upon by the parties. Additionally, BNY Mellon shall use commercially reasonable efforts to develop modifications to the method of delivery of services provided hereunder and to the systems utilized in connection therewith to keep pace with prevailing industry practices for its fund accounting clients generally. In the event that a new or revised regulatory requirement becomes applicable to a Fund that requires a change to the services provided under this Agreement or an increase in the scope of the services provided hereunder or BNY Mellon is otherwise proposing a change to or an increase in the scope of the services provided to its fund accounting clients generally, including a change to keep pace with prevailing market practices, BNY Mellon shall provide a commercially reasonable proposal to the Fund in writing setting forth the terms applicable to such change or increase in scope and BNY Mellon and the Fund shall negotiate in good faith with respect to each such change or increase. BNY Mellon shall not be obligated to provide any new service or increase in the scope of services hereunder unless and until the parties have agreed to the terms applicable to such new service or increase in scope.
(d) Each Fund shall, and shall use commercially reasonable efforts to cause its officers, advisors, independent auditors and accountants, transfer agent and any other service providers hired by the Fund to, cooperate with BNY Mellon and to provide BNY Mellon, upon reasonable request, with such information, documents and advice relating to such Fund as is within the possession or knowledge of such persons, and which BNY Mellon has informed the Fund in writing that it reasonably believes is necessary in order to enable BNY Mellon to perform its duties hereunder. In connection with its duties hereunder, BNY Mellon shall not be responsible for, under any duty to inquire into, or be deemed to make any assurances with respect to, the accuracy, validity or propriety of any information, documents or advice provided to BNY Mellon by any of the aforementioned persons, as long as BNY Mellon utilized the data as contemplated by this Agreement or as otherwise instructed by an Authorized Person. BNY Mellon shall not bear, or otherwise be responsible for, any fees, costs or expenses charged by any third party service providers engaged by a Fund, or by any affiliate of such Fund or by any other third party service provider to such Fund. In the event that any services performed by BNY Mellon hereunder rely, in whole or in part, upon information obtained from a third party service utilized or subscribed to by BNY Mellon which BNY Mellon in its reasonable judgment deems reliable, so long as the selection of the applicable third party service provider was made in good faith and did not involve any BNY Mellon Misconduct, BNY Mellon shall not have any responsibility or liability for, be under any duty to inquire into, or be deemed to make any assurances with respect to, the accuracy or completeness of such information.
(e) Nothing in this Agreement shall limit or restrict BNY Mellon, any BNY Mellon Affiliate or any officer or employee thereof from acting for or with any third parties, and providing services similar or identical to some or all of the services provided hereunder, provided, however, BNY Mellon shall not use Confidential Information (as defined at Section 18) of the Fund in providing such services.
(f) Each Fund shall furnish BNY Mellon with any and all Instructions, explanations, information, specifications, Documents and documentation deemed necessary by BNY Mellon in the performance of its duties hereunder, including, without limitation, the amounts or written formula for calculating the amounts and times of accrual of Fund liabilities and expenses (including fee waivers and rebates, expense repayments and reimbursement amounts), and the value of any securities lending related collateral investment account(s) (with the exception of Funds held within such cash collateral investment account(s) and receiving services hereunder), the amounts receivable and the amounts payable on the sale or purchase of securities, and the amounts receivable or the amounts payable for the sale or redemption of Fund Shares effected by or on behalf of a Fund, and BNY Mellon shall be entitled to rely fully on and shall have no duty or obligation for the accuracy, validity or propriety thereof. BNY Mellon shall not be required to include as Fund liabilities and expenses, nor as a reduction of Net Asset Value, any accrual for any federal, state or foreign income taxes except as expressly required pursuant to the SLDs or unless the Fund shall have specified to BNY Mellon in Instructions the amount of or formula to compute the same to be included in liabilities and expenses or used to reduce Net Asset Value. In the event BNY Mellon’s computations hereunder rely, in whole or in part, upon information, including, without limitation, bid, offer or market values of securities or other assets, or accruals of interest or earnings thereon, from a security pricing or similar service utilized, or subscribed to, by BNY Mellon and which BNY Mellon in its judgment deems reliable at the time such information is required for calculations hereunder or which the Fund directs BNY Mellon to utilize, BNY Mellon shall not be responsible for, under any duty to inquire into (except as expressly required pursuant to the SLDs), or deemed to make any assurances with respect to, the accuracy or completeness of such information as long as BNY Mellon utilized the data as contemplated by this Agreement or as otherwise instructed by an Authorized Person. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, BNY Mellon shall not be required to inquire into any valuation of securities or other assets by a Fund or any third party described in this sub-section (f) even though BNY Mellon in performing services similar to the services provided pursuant to this Agreement for others may receive different valuations of the same or different securities of the same issuers. BNY Mellon will notify the Fund when bid, offer or market values for a security are not available to BNY Mellon and such Fund shall then furnish BNY Mellon with bid, offer or market values for such security as applicable. At any time and from time to time, the Fund also may furnish BNY Mellon with bid, offer or market values of securities and instruct BNY Mellon in Instructions to use such information in its calculations hereunder. In connection therewith, BNY Mellon shall at no time be required or obligated to commence or maintain any subscriptions to any securities pricing or similar service but may be required to utilize a pricing or similar service if required by TRP or the Fund’s Board pursuant to an agreement between the Fund or TRP and the securities pricing service vendor. In no event shall BNY Mellon be required to determine, or have any obligations with respect to, whether a market price represents any fair or true value, nor to adjust any price to reflect any events or announcements, including, without limitation, those with respect to the issuer thereof, it being agreed that all such determinations and considerations shall be solely for the applicable Fund and such Fund’s Valuation Committee. Notwithstanding the foregoing, BNY Mellon shall use commercially reasonable efforts to notify the Fund of events, announcements, issuer information, or other market news of which it becomes aware for consideration by the Fund’s Valuation Committee.
(g) The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation is a global financial organization that provides services to clients through its affiliates and subsidiaries in multiple jurisdictions (the “BNY Mellon Group”). The BNY Mellon Group may centralize functions including audit, accounting, risk, legal, compliance, sales, administration, product communication, relationship management, storage, compilation and analysis of customer-related data, and other functions (the “Centralized Functions”) in one or more affiliates, subsidiaries and third-party service providers. Solely in connection with the Centralized Functions, (i) each Fund consents to the disclosure of and authorizes BNY Mellon to disclose information regarding the Fund (“Customer-Related Data”) to the BNY Mellon Group and to its third-party service providers who are subject to written confidentiality, security and data protection obligations with respect to such information at least as restrictive as those set forth in this Agreement and (ii) BNY Mellon may store the names and business contact information of each Fund’s employees and representatives on the systems or in the records of the BNY Mellon Group or its service providers. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the BNY Mellon Group may use data regarding the Fund collected and/or calculated by the BNY Mellon Group in the course of providing the services under this Agreement and may use such data for the purpose of measuring and monitoring its performance of services to its customers, including the Fund, and for the further purpose of seeking to improve the quality and/or reduce the cost of providing such services. The BNY Mellon Group may also aggregate data regarding the Fund collected and/or calculated by the BNY Mellon Group in the course of providing the services under this Agreement with other similar data regarding other customers and may use such aggregated data in regulatory reports and/or in materials prepared for BNY Mellon shareholders, other clients or potential clients (i.e., aggregate assets under administration, total number of funds, total number of NAVs calculated or transactions processed and similar types of information); provided, however, that all such aggregated data shall be anonymized in connection with such aggregation, and provided further, however, that BNY Mellon shall not aggregate or use (other than in connection with performing the services pursuant to this Agreement or as specifically permitted in the preceding parenthetical) non-public securities trading information, information regarding individual securities transactions or positions or information regarding the valuation of individual securities without the Fund’s prior written consent. BNY Mellon will own all such aggregated data. In the event that the BNY Mellon Group desires to aggregate the Fund’s data for the purpose of products offered to the BNY Mellon Group’s clients, BNY Mellon will provide a proposal to the Fund in writing setting forth the data that the BNY Mellon Group desires to aggregate and the proposed use of the aggregated data, and the BNY Mellon Group will not aggregate and/or use such aggregated data in such manner without the Fund’s prior written consent.
(h) BNY Mellon may consult with counsel to the appropriate Fund, at such Fund’s expense, and shall be fully protected with respect to anything done or omitted by it in good faith and without BNY Mellon Misconduct in accordance with the advice or opinion of such Fund counsel.
(i) BNY Mellon shall be responsible for determining in accordance with U.S. tax laws and regulations: (i) the taxable nature of any distribution or amount received or deemed received by, or payable to, a Fund and (ii) the taxable nature or effect on a Fund or its shareholders of any corporate actions, class actions, tax reclaims, tax refunds or similar events (each, a “BNYM Tax Determination”) and agrees to process such securities or events in accordance with the BNYM Tax Determination unless instructed otherwise by TRP through the Escalation Process described immediately below. BNY Mellon and TRP shall put in place mutually agreed upon procedures as part of the SLD that outline the circumstances under which BNY Mellon is required to alert TRP regarding a BNYM Tax Determination. TRP shall have the right in those circumstances to instruct BNY Mellon to process a security or an event differently than the BNYM Tax Determination for a Fund or Funds (the “Escalation Process”). BNY Mellon is not responsible for the identification of securities requiring U.S. tax treatment that differs from treatment under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. In addition and for the avoidance of doubt, BNY Mellon shall not be responsible for determining the taxable nature or taxable amount of any Fund level distribution or dividend, or the effect under any federal, state or foreign income tax laws of a Fund making or not making any Fund level distribution or dividend payment, or any election with respect thereto.
(j) Subject to the terms of Section 2, BNY Mellon shall have no duties or responsibilities whatsoever except such duties and responsibilities as are specifically set forth in this Agreement and Schedule I including SLDs attached hereto. Subject to the terms of Section 3(b)(viii), no covenant or obligation shall be implied against BNY Mellon in connection with this Agreement.
(k) BNY Mellon, in performing the services required of it under the terms of this Agreement, shall not be responsible for determining whether any interest accruable to a Fund is or will be actually paid, but will accrue such interest until otherwise instructed by such Fund.
(l) BNY Mellon shall enter into and shall maintain in effect with appropriate parties one or mor