SEC filing system goes to hyper-drive

Washington -- The Securities and Exchange Commission has decided it's time for a new interactive filing system that makes information a mouse-click away, analysts said.

In fact, the system, using extensible business reporting language, or XBRL, will allow investors to skim through financial reports in a fraction of the time it takes to do now, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

"We're replacing the family station wagon with a Ferrari," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox.

Cox said the program, which allows users to quickly find data from several different companies and transfer them to a single spreadsheet, helps investors find "the information they need to make wise decisions."

Liv Watson, formerly an XBRL International board member, called the system "hyperlinks on steroids."

"It's like setting data free," Watson said.

The current proposal for compliance with the system includes a two-year schedule. The 500 largest public companies need to use the new system starting Dec. 15 with the information filed becoming public in early 2009, the Post reported. The next 1,200 companies would need to comply by Dec. 15, 2009, while the deadline for all publicly traded companies filing XBRL reports is the end of 2010.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.