The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in an open meeting earlier today officially adopted a rule mandating interactive data (XBRL) filings of SEC reports for public companies, in a phased approach beginning in 2009.
With this rule proposal, the SEC is effectively mandating that all public companies, beginning with large cap filers, submit their SEC reports in Interactive Data format, specifically in XBRL. XBRL software, an evolution of XML, the code the Internet was built upon, makes it much easier to collect, manage and share financial data and information, basically ‘bar-coding’ financial data. The SEC should be issuing a release on this new rule later today (or tomorrow), which will be available here: http://www.sec.gov/news/press.shtml
Some perspective on this SEC announcement offered by Sunir Kapoor of XBRL US and UBmatrix, Inc.:
“Interactive Data or XBRL is bringing a revolution to the transparency of public financial information. Such democratization of information can only lead to a more informed public and investment community. This is good news for investors, for analysts and for the financial stability and transparency on Wall Street. This is one of the most important changes in financial reporting since the Securities Act of 1934,” said Sunir Kapoor, a board member of XBRL US, an organization dedicated to advancing the understanding and use of XBRL standards, and chief executive officer of UBmatrix, Inc., the leading provider of ‘SEC-ready’ XBRL information exchange solutions.
“This announcement ushers in the Age of Transparency. This rule is just one of many XBRL initiatives taking place today to provide transparency from the security to the company to the market. This rule, combined with SEC rules requiring XBRL in the areas of Nationally Recognized Statistical Ratings Organizations’ ratings, Mutual Fund disclosures and other XBRL activities in the areas of Corporate Actions and Executive Compensation will lead to more transparent and efficient financial markets,” he continued.
“Use of such technology not only increases public company transparency, it will also improve the efficiency and reduce the costs of reporting for those companies. I think we can expect to see even more adoption of such technologies by US agencies in the next administration as President-elect Obama has been a champion of similar transparency initiatives in the Senate, including the ‘Obama-Coburn Transparency Act’ and the ‘Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008,’ which pushed for a web search engine for federal spending,” said Kapoor.
UBmatrix, a leading provider of XBRL solutions and services, is offering a “First Step” service which provides companies with all the tools and direction needed to comply with the SEC mandate, as well as to begin leveraging the power of XBRL financial information exchange. At the heart of the UBmatrix service is UBmatrix Report Builder 3.5, a desktop tool for preparing, reviewing and analyzing XBRL data and documents. The solution includes a ‘SEC viewer’ so companies can see exactly how their reports will be seen by the SEC, analysts and investors. The solution is also integrated with Microsoft Excel and Word, embracing the workflows finance and compliance departments already use when preparing SEC reports. UBmatrix’s has deep experience in XBRL as a pioneer in the development of the standard – and in large-scale deployments of XBRL solutions. UBmatrix previously announced that its UBmatrix XBRL Processing Engine software has been selected by Keane Federal Systems, Inc. a subsidiary of Keane, Inc. under Keane’s contract to support the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Interactive Data Initiative and EDGAR® Modernization effort.
