The Securities and Exchange Commission will discuss how issuers and investors use financial information during the agency’s roundtable discussion on its new interactive data collection and dissemination system, called IDEA, on October 8, 2008, in Washington, DC.
IDEA is scheduled to replace the current form-based system, EDGAR, in phases during the next three years. The foundation for the new platform is the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), an interactive data-tagging system for financial statements.

A spokesman for the SEC said the roundtable will look at potential improvements to make financial information more usable and of higher quality.

“We anticipate hearing from experts representing filers and users who will discuss the current state of technology in the markets and any barriers or inefficiencies presented by the decades-old, forms-based disclosure system,” said John Nester, an SEC spokesman.
The SEC issued a proposal at the end of May, Release No. 33-8924, Interactive Data to Improve Financial Reporting, to have all publicly traded companies submit regulatory filings using XBRL. If approved, the rule would lead to the 500 largest foreign and domestic companies filing their financial statements in XBRL by the end of 2008 and all remaining companies by the end of 2009. In February, the SEC-sponsored Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting endorsed the adoption of XBRL.

Philip Moyer, CEO and president of Edgar Online Inc., which provides a service that converts financial statements into XBRL, estimates that 50% of the 500 largest U.S. companies use interactive data in SEC filings.