XBRL – SEC Asks for Public Comment

The SEC’s office of Interactive Disclosure began asking for public comment on the use of eXtensible Business Reporting Language, commonly known as XBRL, in public company financial statements.  Several large, well-known companies have voluntarily adopted XBRL in their EDGAR filings with the SEC and the agency has committed more than $50 million to make its public company disclosure system compatible with XBRL, according to the National Institute of Investor Relations.  XBRL International, a not-for-profit consortium of approximately 550 companies and agencies worldwide working together to build the XBRL language and promote and support its adoption, reports that XBRL is an open standard, free of license fees that promotes the interactive sharing of financial data.
 
It is believed that XBRL will provide investors and analysts with more useful financial disclosures by allowing companies to present their financial information in a format that allows investors and analysts to more easily locate and analyze this information.  It is also anticipated that XBRL will provide greater efficiency, improved accuracy and reliability and cost savings to anyone involved in supplying or using financial data.
 
While there will likely be some growing pains when public companies are required to adopt XBRL in their financial statements, over the longer term its use should make it easier for the investing public to analyze a company’s financial statements and easier for public companies to get their story out into the investing marketplace.
 
The public comment period ends April 4, 2008.

— Laurie Berman, Senior Vice President, lberman@pondel.com