XBRL US Labs, the research and development arm of XBRL US, and the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF), the parent organization of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), have announced a three-year agreement for cooperative XBRL taxonomy research.
XBRL, or eXtensible Business Reporting Language, is an XML standard for tagging business and financial reports to increase the transparency and accessibility of business information by using a uniform format. XBRL US and the FASB have worked together since 2006 to apply XBRL to US GAAP accounting standards for companies to digitally "tag" complex financial statements and footnotes using a common language.
FAF recently assumed maintenance responsibilities for the 15,000-tag US GAAP taxonomy, which was developed by XBRL US under contract to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In 2009, the SEC issued rules requiring public companies and foreign private issuers that prepare their financial statements in accordance with US GAAP to phase in use of the US GAAP taxonomy. Under these rules, companies will tag and submit their financial statements and related notes to the SEC using the US GAAP taxonomy.
Under the agreement, FAF and XBRL US Labs will collaborate and work cooperatively with each other to foster the continued high quality and effectiveness of the US GAAP taxonomy and to promote interoperability and consistency between future versions of that taxonomy developed by FAF with other financial reporting taxonomies that XBRL US will develop and implement.
"This agreement is a very positive development for the XBRL standard, for a growing XBRL user base, and for our relationship with XBRL US," said Terri Polley, FAF President. "Working collaboratively with XBRL US, we have an opportunity to build a more transparent market using XBRL taxonomies."
The research will build on tools and techniques developed by XBRL US Labs to maintain and publish taxonomies for tagging financial statements. XBRL US Labs is also engaged in other research projects to standardize common business reports for mutual funds, credit ratings, mortgage-backed securities, and corporate actions such as dividends and mergers.
"The collaboration between XBRL US and FAF is a powerful combination of technology standards and accounting standards," said Barry Melancon, President and CEO of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and XBRL US chairman. "This work will strengthen a solid foundation for expanding XBRL adoption in the public and private sectors." |
