WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
The U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission unveiled a Web site on Friday that lets investors
launch charts and graphs to probe the financial data of a
select group of companies that have signed on to the agency's
interactive data push.
The SEC's new Financial Explorer site, reached via
http://www.sec.gov/xbrl , is a tool that lets users manipulate
raw data derived from XBRL, or extensible business reporting
language.
The agency is pushing companies to start filing their
financial data in XBRL, which means that electronic tags much
like bar codes would be attached to each piece of financial
data.
More than 70 companies have signed on to the SEC's XBRL
pilot program, and the agency is expected to propose as soon as
April that companies be required to file financial results in
XBRL.
The Financial Explorer site uses interactive charts and
diagrams, including "atomic models," to represent data such as
current assets, long-term investments and goodwill.
Users can also compare earnings, earnings, expenses, cash
flows, assets, and liabilities for companies in the same
industry.
"XBRL is fast becoming the universal language for the
exchange of business information and it is the future of
financial reporting," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox in a
statement. "With Financial Explorer or another XBRL viewer,
investors will be able to quickly make sense of financial
statements."
The site is currently limited to the 74 companies that are
involved in the agency's pilot program, which include General
Electric Co, Microsoft Corp and United Technologies Corp.
An SEC advisory committee created to improve financial
reporting voiced concerns recently about the financial cost for
companies to implement XBRL and the liability that could be
attached to faulty implementation.
The agency has already launched other online viewers that
let investors manipulate data instead of having to copy and
paste into a spreadsheet.
The Executive Compensation viewer lets users compare pay
data from 500 of the largest U.S. companies and the Interactive
Financial Report viewer allows for the comparison of key
disclosures from the companies in the XBRL pilot program.
The Financial Explorer site is open source, meaning
technology and financial experts can update and improve the
viewer tool.
The SEC said it sees the potential for investors and
analysts to develop hundreds of Web-based applications that
would further push along the development of XBRL.
(Reporting by Karey Wutkowski; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
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