Press Release: SEC Chairman Cox Announces Landmark Progress in Providing Instant, User-Friendly Access to Financial Reporting Information for Investors
SEC Chairman Christopher Cox announced a technological milestone in financial reporting by completing a comprehensive XBRL taxonomy for U.S. GAAP, enabling machine-readable financial disclosures without any fraud, charges, or misconduct.
The SEC, under Chairman Christopher Cox, completed the mapping of all U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to standardized XBRL data tags, enhancing the accessibility and comparability of financial reports. This initiative, developed in collaboration with the Financial Accounting Foundation and FASB, allows investors and analysts to download and analyze financial data directly into software like Excel, with over $2 trillion in market capitalization already participating in the voluntary pilot program. No fraud, legal charges, or enforcement actions are involved—this is purely a regulatory infrastructure upgrade to modernize EDGAR and improve transparency.
SEC Chairman Christopher Cox announced a landmark achievement in financial reporting on September 25, 2007, with the completion of a comprehensive XBRL taxonomy that maps every element of U.S. GAAP to standardized data tags. This technological advancement enables public companies to file financial statements in a machine-readable format, allowing investors, analysts, and software tools to automatically extract, compare, and analyze financial data across industries. The project was a collaborative effort involving the Financial Accounting Foundation, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and XBRL US, with no allegations of fraud or misconduct. Over $2 trillion in market capitalization from participating companies had already adopted the voluntary pilot program, demonstrating strong industry buy-in. The SEC’s EDGAR system is being transformed to support this interactive data format, improving accessibility and reducing manual processing errors. A final review for GAAP compliance by the FAF was nearing completion, followed by stakeholder feedback before public release. This milestone represents a major step toward modernizing financial disclosure, not enforcing penalties, and enhances transparency for all market participants without altering accounting standards themselves.
Extracted insights
- $2000.00B $2 trillion ≥$1B
- person financial accounting foundation
- person financial accounting standards board
- agency Securities and Exchange Commission
- Securities And Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox announced the completion of all work on developing data tags for the entire system of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles
- Securities And Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox commended the remarkable efforts of the XBRL US project team
- Securities And Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox commended the Financial Accounting Foundation and the Financial Accounting Standards Board
- Securities And Exchange Commission has permitted public companies to file their financial reports with the agency in interactive data format
- Securities And Exchange Commission has committed to transform its vast database of financial information, nicknamed EDGAR, into interactive data format
- Financial Accounting Standards Board administers the entire system of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
- Financial Accounting Foundation is nearing completion of a review for GAAP compliance
SEC Chairman Cox Announces Landmark Progress in Providing Instant, User-Friendly Access to Financial Reporting Information for Investors FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2007-200 New York, N.Y., September 25, 2007 - The promise of investor-friendly financial reporting moved closer to reality today as Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox announced the completion of all work on developing data tags for the entire system of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. The announcement came at a New York press conference attended by Chairman Cox, whose agency has strongly supported the use of data tags in financial reporting by U.S. public companies. "This is a great step toward making SEC reporting easier for registrants and easier to understand for every investor," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. "I commend the remarkable efforts of the XBRL US project team for their leadership in the private sector in perfecting this globally accepted technological means for exchanging financial data, and also the Financial Accounting Foundation and the Financial Accounting Standards Board for the expertise in U.S. GAAP that they contributed to this project." What colloquially is termed "interactive data" is the use of computer-coded "tags", written in the XBRL computer language, that each correspond to a unique accounting concept. The use of the tags makes it possible for investors, analysts, and others to download financial reports filed with the SEC directly into spreadsheets in Excel and other popular software, and to use other web tools and specialty software to do instant financial comparisons across entire industries. The SEC has committed to transform its vast database of financial information, nicknamed EDGAR, into interactive data format. For over two years, the SEC has permitted public companies to file their financial reports with the agency in interactive data format, as part of a pilot program. Recently, the market capitalization of companies participating in the voluntary program topped $2 trillion. The collection of data tags being used for current filings on the SEC's EDGAR system, however, is relatively simplistic, using approximately 2,500 unique elements. That has required many companies to write their own custom tags, called extensions, to accurately represent their statements. The work that was completed today has mapped every element of the entire system of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, administered by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in Norwalk, CT, to a unique data tag. The achievement of this milestone means that public companies can more easily tag their financials. And it brings automated financial reporting to the SEC — as well as increased usability of financial statement for investors — one step closer to reality. A review for GAAP compliance by the FAF (Financial Accounting Foundation) is nearing completion, and critical stakeholder groups including analysts, public company preparers and software providers will be reviewing the draft taxonomies first, before a broad-based public review is initiated. http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2007/2007-200.htm Home | Previous Page Modified: 09/25/2007
SEC Chairman Cox Announces Landmark Progress in Providing Instant, User-Friendly Access to Financial Reporting Information for Investors FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2007-200 New York, N.Y., September 25, 2007 - The promise of investor-friendly financial reporting moved closer to reality today as Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox announced the completion of all work on developing data tags for the entire system of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. The announcement came at a New York press conference attended by Chairman Cox, whose agency has strongly supported the use of data tags in financial reporting by U.S. public companies. "This is a great step toward making SEC reporting easier for registrants and easier to understand for every investor," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. "I commend the remarkable efforts of the XBRL US project team for their leadership in the private sector in perfecting this globally accepted technological means for exchanging financial data, and also the Financial Accounting Foundation and the Financial Accounting Standards Board for the expertise in U.S. GAAP that they contributed to this project." What colloquially is termed "interactive data" is the use of computer-coded "tags", written in the XBRL computer language, that each correspond to a unique accounting concept. The use of the tags makes it possible for investors, analysts, and others to download financial reports filed with the SEC directly into spreadsheets in Excel and other popular software, and to use other web tools and specialty software to do instant financial comparisons across entire industries. The SEC has committed to transform its vast database of financial information, nicknamed EDGAR, into interactive data format. For over two years, the SEC has permitted public companies to file their financial reports with the agency in interactive data format, as part of a pilot program. Recently, the market capitalization of companies participating in the voluntary program topped $2 trillion. The collection of data tags being used for current filings on the SEC's EDGAR system, however, is relatively simplistic, using approximately 2,500 unique elements. That has required many companies to write their own custom tags, called extensions, to accurately represent their statements. The work that was completed today has mapped every element of the entire system of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, administered by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in Norwalk, CT, to a unique data tag. The achievement of this milestone means that public companies can more easily tag their financials. And it brings automated financial reporting to the SEC — as well as increased usability of financial statement for investors — one step closer to reality. A review for GAAP compliance by the FAF (Financial Accounting Foundation) is nearing completion, and critical stakeholder groups including analysts, public company preparers and software providers will be reviewing the draft taxonomies first, before a broad-based public review is initiated. http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2007/2007-200.htm Home | Previous Page Modified: 09/25/2007