XBRL, the language of interactive data, makes it easy for investors and analysts to compare companies’ disclosures and does away with the need for laborious manual comparisons of paper filings or having to re-enter data into spreadsheets or proprietary systems. Over 80 countries worldwide are moving to XBRL in some form for regulatory reporting with the Chinese recently having announced they will mandate it for all listed companies and the Dutch planning to use it for all forms of financial reporting. The Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) is planning to use XBRL for the CRD (Basel II for the EU) reporting templates, CoRep and FinRep, and, in the UK, corporate tax reporting will have to be in XBRL format from the 2008 tax year.

However, XBRL has not yet caught on in all jurisdictions, with the UK's FSA opting for XML (see report) whilst commenting "in recognition of the fact that XBRL activity within the regulatory community is on the increase, we will continue to monitor the development of XBRL." For this reason, the SEC’s decision is a major boost for those countries that have elected to go the XBRL route. As well as its XBRL development programme, the SEC is funding XBRL US Inc to develop a complete taxonomy for the GAAP accounting format and so opening up XBRL to universal use. It is also funding the creation of free XBRL readers so enabling full public adoption at all levels. It is determined that XBRL shall not only be used by the large investment analysis firms.

In a public round table last Tuesday on interactive data held by the SEC, the CEO of Pepsico, Indra Nooyi, said they had been firm supporters of XBRL from the start “We are fanatics for accurate, timely, transparent and effective financial reporting and we believe XBRL is the tool that can support any company that shares our goal”. She added that XBRL had required a much smaller investment than had expected with up front costs of $5K and 50-80 hours of labour, rapidly dropping to a few hundred dollars per submission and significantly less effort. (There is a webcast of these proceedings.)

"The SEC decision is the vote of confidence that XBRL needs", says XBRL specialist, David Anderson of North Cardinal, "It is putting hard money into its public adoption and, by offering free to download XBRL software, it is making it easier for investors to benefit and cheaper for companies to report."