SEC To Consider XBRL Rulemaking May 14; U.S. GAAP Taxonomies Completed
May 9, 2008
FEI Summary

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is slated to consider potential rulemaking relating to requirements for public companies to file financial information with the SEC by tagging certain data using eXtensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL, at an open commission meeting on May 14. The meeting, originally scheduled to take place on April 21, was moved to May 14 as stated in this SEC Notice.

Recommendations concerning XBRL were included in the Progress Report of the SEC Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting (CIFiR, or the "Pozen Committee" for chair Robert Pozen). CIFiR recommended a phased-in approach to mandating adoption of XBRL, starting with the largest public companies, and that initial XBRL information be "furnished," not "filed." CIFiR also recommended initial XBRL information not be subject to auditor attestation pending further study of the costs and benefits of such attestation specifically on the XBRL data.

U.S. GAAP Taxonomies Completed by XBRL-US, Delivered to SEC

In related news, the U.S. GAAP taxonomies (dictionary of data tags) were completed by XBRL-US and delivered to the SEC on April 28.

As noted in this XBRL-US press release, David Blaszkowsky, director of the SEC's Office of Interactive Disclosure, stated, "This delivery ensures that the tools are in place for public companies to create interactive data-formatted financials with ease and efficiency."

An "XBRL Preparer's Guide and Case Studies" are also avaialble from XBRL-US, as noted in its April, 2008 newsletter.

FEI Committees Share Their Views

Three FEI committees commented on CIFiR's XBRL-related proposals, and the other CIFiR recommendations, in comment letters filed on CIFiR's Progress Report. See the letters filed by FEI's Committee on Finance and Information Technology, the letter filed by FEI's Committee on Small and Mid-Sized Public Companies (the two separate letters are attached  here), and the letter filed by FEI's Committee on Corporate Reporting here. 

SEC General Counsel's Comments

See also FEI's related summary: SEC General Counsel Says XBRL Proposal Will Be Considered "In The Near Future."

Updated May 9, 2008 by Edith Orenstein, Director, Technical Policy Analysis, Financial Executives International (FEI). This summary does not represent FEI opinion unless specifically noted above.