Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent federal government regulatory agency for protecting investors, maintaining fair and orderly functioning of securities markets, and facilitating capital formation. As a regulatory agency, it has mandated XBRL submissions of financial business reporting since 2009. In 2018, the commission modified the XBRL Filing Requirements to mandate the usage of inline XBRL in a phased-in approach.
Any company providing financial statements in this interactive data format (inline XBRL) must also provide it on their public website at the same time. A requirement that supports the transparency necessary between filed and publically available data. Public companies and foreign private issuers that prepare their financial statements in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (U.S. GAAP), and foreign private issuers that prepare their financial statements using International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as issued by the International Accounting
Standards Board (IASB)
The usage of inline XBRL at the SEC has also inspired other programs, for example, ESEF. The ESEF program takes it one step further in innovation by requiring an auditor’s opinion and independent assurance.
The future is also bright, with a new program related to public utilities being established (FERC). The goal is that software vendors can easily provide technical functionality already developed for this new program.
Cover Page Tagging (FAST Act)
The cover pages of Forms 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, 20-F, and 40-F must be tagged using inline XBRL. It utilizes the US GAAP taxonomies as a base for this tagging
Inline XBRL for operating companies
All operating public companies must file using inline XBRL. The program has been phased in from 2019 for 3 years. It applies for all cases as of now (or your first 10-Q submitted after compliance date)
Inline XBRL for funds
All funds must submit inline XBRL. This includes Fund Risk/Return Summary information.
As a mature regulatory body, various tools already provided included the SEC EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval) Renderer through the Arelle GUI (open source). Additionally, since it’s standard-based, any vendor supporting the XBRL specification can appropriately parse and load taxonomies and instances.
Additionally, the SEC has engaged the private industry to create a Center for Data Quality. The consortium stewards the prevention and detection of errors in XBRL submissions. It additionally supports a DQC Certification on the products to ensure compliance.
Taxonomies
- U.S. GAAP
- SEC Reporting (SRT)
- Countries (COUNTRY)
- Currencies (CURRENCY)
- Document and Entity (DEI)
- Exchanges (EXCH)
- North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)
- Risk-Return (RR)
- Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)
- State and Province (STPR)
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