SEC evaluates accepting filings using XBRL tagged data.

• Position: Securities and Exchange Commission's Extensible Business Reporting Language initiative

In a major milestone for the five-year old Extensible Business Reporting Language initiative, the Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced it will consider a staff proposal to accept voluntary supplemental filings of financial data using XBRL (www.xbrl.org) and also will seek public comment on alternative methods and the costs and benefits associated with tagged data. The SEC's complete announcement is available from www.sec.gov/news/press/2004-97.htm. XBRL-US, representing the United States as part of XBRL International, issued a press release following the SEC announcement in which important members o the information value chain, including the Financial Accounting Standards Board, Microsoft, Financial Executives International, the AICPA and EDGAR Online, discussed the positive impact of the SEC action on companies and investors. The XBRL-US release can be found at www.xbrl.org.

The AICPA developed XBRL through the establishment of a non-profit international consortium of approximately 250 major companies, organizations and government agencies with members draw from the accounting, technology, securities and government sectors. As a founding member, the Institute currently is serving as host of XBRL-US. XBRL is an open standard, free of license fees.

The SEC announcement is one of a series of XBRL initiative which are being put in place by financial regulators around the work including the Inland Revenue and Financial...