SEC Interactive Data for Mutual Funds - Final Rule

To improve the usefulness of business intelligence, the SEC recently adopted rule amendments changing the form in which mutual funds provide risk/return summary information. The rule outlines what firms must file using XMBL tags and when they must file using these tags.

What is XBRL? XBRL or eXtensible Business Reporting Language, “creates taxonomies of "tags" for labeling specific pieces of business information." For example, a “tag” created for “gross profits” will identify where it appears in every corporate report. This will not only allow easier access to information for cross comparisons, but it will standardize the automation of business information.

The conversion of U.S. GAAP into XBRL is not new. In 2006, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox announced that the “SEC awarded three contracts, worth $54 million, to transform the 20-year-old EDGAR database that now houses corporate regulatory filings, into an interactive database that uses the XBRL programming language.”

At a news conference in 2007, Cox announced that translating GAAP into the XBRL data tags was a “major step that will help every U.S. public company and investor."

Easier access to business intelligence is a good thing. Click here to access the SEC Final Rule.



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