8 Aug 2002: Nasdaq, Microsoft, PricewaterhouseCoopers Endorse XBRL

The Nasdaq Stock Market, Microsoft and PricewaterhouseCoopers have embarked on a pilot programme to introduce the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) standard into delivery of investor information over the Internet.

Under the programme, 21 Nasdaq-listed companies will offer financial data from their financial reports going back five years. The information, formatted in XBRL, will be available via a Nasdaq-hosted web service. Users will be able to download the information into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

According to Alfred Berkeley, vice chairman of Nasdaq, “The widespread adoption of XBRL technology will mean corporations and investors alike will reap the benefits of a simpler process for issuing financial reports and making investment decisions.”

“By reducing the time and cost of obtaining and using information, XBRL will greatly enhance the ability of companies and investors to produce and analyze information,” says Mike Willis, founding chairman of XBRL International and partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “It will lead to improved investor access and dramatically increase the speed at which investors can obtain information for their own analysis.”

The XBRL standard uses tags to identify generic information within financial documents with the aim of making it easier for investors to find and analyze data.