UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT: SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION : BUSINESS: CORPORATE FINANCIAL REPORTS AND REPORTING: SEC Unveils a Filing System Intended to Replace Edgar
UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT: SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION : BUSINESS: CORPORATE FINANCIAL REPORTS AND REPORTING:
SEC Unveils a Filing System Intended to Replace Edgar
SEC Unveils a Filing System Intended to Replace Edgar
By JUDITH BURNS
August 20, 2008; Page C4
Wall Street Journal
<http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB121917510080154125.html?mod=googlenews_wsj>
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Goodbye, Edgar. Hello, IDEA.
Edgar, the Securities and Exchange Commission's electronic database of corporate filings, will be replaced by a new system dubbed IDEA, or Interactive Data Electronic Applications, the agency said.
"This isn't just a renaming of Edgar," but an entirely new approach, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said at a news conference.
IDEA will supplement Edgar at first but eventually replace it altogether. Mr. Cox said the system will give investors faster and easier access to key financial information about public companies and mutual funds.
Edgar, which stands for Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval, dates from the 1980s.
SEC set to overhaul data filing system
By Stacy-Marie Ishmael
Published: August 19 2008 21:34 | Last updated: August 19 2008 21:34 Financial Times <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ace9e536–6e28–11dd-b5df-0000779fd18c.html>
The US Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday that it would replace its decades-old system of collecting, collating and distributing financial information with a new interactive database.
The Interactive Data Electronic Applications (Idea) database will supplement and eventually replace the existing Edgar system for company filings. Idea will run in parallel with Edgar for about three years, and filings in the interactive data format will be available from later this year.
<snip>
Unlike Edgar, the new system will allow investors and analysts to search and download financial data into spreadsheets and proprietary models. Idea is based on the extensible business reporting language, or XBRL, which uses electronic tags to identify financial data.
In May, the SEC proposed rules that would mandate the largest public companies in the US to file their financial results in XBRL format by early 2009. The proposal, which is currently non-binding, would be applied to smaller companies in 2010 and 2011.
XBRL has not, however, gained traction in the US. A recent survey by Compliance Week showed that nearly 80 per cent of companies polled had little or no familiarity with the technology.
Francine McKenna, author of the blog re:TheAuditors and a former director at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, said companies were unprepared for the change: Companies will need a lot of consulting help to implement XBRL and incorporate into the new Reg FD [fair disclosure rules] suggestions to do more with their websites and investor relations blogs.
All SEC financial data to be interactive
The Associated Press
Published:
August 19, 2008
International Herald Tribune
<http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/
2008/08/19/business/NA-US-SEC-Data-System.php>
A shorter URL for the above link:
IDEA is "a fundamental change in the way the SEC manages, collects and distributes information" that make it more accessible and reliable for investors, Cox said.
With the change, all the data in companies' SEC filings will be searchable on the Internet. Investors will be able to immediately collate information from thousands of companies, creating reports and analyses "on the fly, in any way they choose," the SEC said.
Around 90 companies have voluntarily been filing their disclosures to the SEC using the so-called XBRL, or extensible business reporting language, that provides advanced search capabilities with data-tagging. All public companies and mutual funds will be required to do so through the IDEA system within two years.
Edgar, the SEC's online reporting system since the 1980s, stores paper corporate filings in electronic form.
Rather than treating financial information as a block of text as in a standard Internet page or a printed document XBRL provides a unique identifying tag for each individual item of data, such as company net profit. That enables users to extract specific information more easily from SEC filings, run calculations and aggregate data without having to open and review multiple filings.
SEC Introduces IDEA Database to Collate XBRL Reporting Tags
By Roy Mark
2008–08–19
E-Week
<http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Applications/
An-IDEA-Whose-Time-Has-Come/>
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EDGAR will continue to be available for the indefinite future. During the transition to IDEA, investors will be able to take advantage of new interactive, IDEA-like features that will be grafted onto EDGAR in the short run.
The transition will make it possible for investors to use IDEA's advanced search capabilities and to use the information from EDGAR within spreadsheets and analytical software, which is not possible with EDGAR. The EDGAR database also will continue to be available as an archive of company filings for past years.
"When Congress created the SEC, and even when EDGAR was launched, the markets worked on paper and by mail. Today, the marketplace works online and by e-mail," said William D. Lutz, who is leading the SEC's 21st Century Disclosure Initiative. "Companies and investors alike compile, analyze and produce information and reports electronically. With the move to an electronic data-based filing system, the SEC will not only keep pace with the markets, but will provide investors with a dynamic, usable system they can use to get the information they need."
Formatting financial documents with XBRL allows the data to be easily searched on the Internet, downloaded into spreadsheets, reorganized in databases and put to any number of other comparative and analytical uses. An international nonprofit consortium of approximately 450 major companies, organizations and government agencies is developing the open-source, royalty-free language.
SEC Dumping Edgar Reporting System for 'IDEA'
08.19.08
by Chloe Albanesius
PC Magazine
<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2328399,00.asp>
"This new SEC resource powered by interactive data will give investors far faster, more accurate, and more meaningful information about the companies and mutual funds they own," chairman Cox said in a statement. "IDEA's launch represents a fundamental change in the way the SEC collects and publishes company and fund information and in the way that investors will be able to use it."
The IDEA logo will appear immediately on the SEC Web site, though companies' interactive data filings will not be searchable via IDEA until later this year, Cox said.
Investors will continue to use EDGAR for now, but the SEC will insert "IDEA-like features" into EDGAR as the transition continues, the SEC said.
"This will make it possible for investors to tap IDEA's advanced search capabilities, and to use the information from EDGAR within spreadsheets and analytical software something that was never possible with EDGAR," the agency said.
Last month, the SEC voted unanimously to modernize its rules regarding company Web site and blogs posts to fit in with an increasingly digital economy.
SEC Updates Rules Regarding Web, Blog Posts
07.31.08
by Chloe Albanesius
PC Magazine
<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2326935,00.asp>
With major technology mergers dominating the news in 2008, having up-to-date information on the investor relations Web sites of companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, or Google can help reporters on deadlines as well as shareholders wondering whether their life savings are about to chewed up and spit out by Carl Icahn.
Federal guidelines for what type of information companies can provide on their official Web sites, however, have not been updated since 2000, so the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday voted unanimously to modernize its rules to fit in with an increasingly digital economy.
Under the revamped rules, which have not yet been released in their entirety, information posted on a company Web site does not necessarily have to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley rules relating to a company's disclosure controls and procedures.
The rules also provides clarity on how companies can: provide access to historical or archived data without it being considered reissued or republished every time it is accessed; link to third party information or Web sites without having to "adopt" that content for liability purposes; use summary information in the context of the securities laws' antifraud provisions.
US SEC Unveils New Electronic Filing System
Grant Gross, IDG News Service
Tuesday, August 19, 2008 11:10 AM PDT
PC World
Business Center
<http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/150008/
us_sec_unveils_new_electronic_filing_system.html>
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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission <http://www.pcworld.com/tags/U.S.+Securities+and+Exchange+Commission.html>
has unveiled its new
electronic filing system, saying the new technology will allow investors to better compare information between companies or investment funds.
<snip>
Under EDGAR, investors searching for comparative data had to go through a "cumbersome" process, Cox said. Investors had to shift through multiple online forms, and then paste the data into separate forms, but IDEA allows investors to compare information for organizations such as mutual funds with a few clicks, he said.
To compare information under EDGAR, "somebody has to go through all this work, and somebody has to pay for it," Cox said.
In addition, when companies filed reports for EDGAR, many reports had to be re-entered by hand to appear on the SEC Web site, Cox said.
"EDGAR dates back to the time of mainframe computing," Cox said during a press conference. "It's time for the SEC to take the next step."
IDEA will allow investors to analyze financial data "faster, better and cheaper," he added.
Financial Data 'on Steroids'
SEC to Junk Paper Filings, Require Interactive Online Reports
By Christopher Twarowski
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 19, 2008; Page D01
Washington Post
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/article/2008/08/18/AR2008081802110.html>
A shorter URL for the above link:
While advocates say the new system will eventually save companies money because of the speed and ease of preparing disclosures, some critics complain about the initial expenses of making the transition, a burden that is particularly unwelcome during an economic slowdown.
To illustrate the system during a recent interview, Blaszkowsky sifted through volumes of financial information with a few clicks of his mouse, extracting data from several companies and creating a multicolor bar graph to compare the figures. Then he exported the data into an Excel spreadsheet. What took Blaszkowsky only seconds could have cost hours for a reader of current SEC filings.
"The centerpiece of our regulatory approach is giving investors the information they need to make wise decisions," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. "We have an opportunity to exponentially improve the way we perform that mission."
EDGAR lists data in blocks of text. Financial statements for one company in a single year can amount to hundreds of pages and be laden with legalese and business-speak. There can be pages and pages of footnotes alone. Searching for financial details can be a chore.
SEC Filings & Forms (EDGAR)
<http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml>
All companies, foreign and domestic, are required to file registration statements, periodic reports, and other forms electronically through EDGAR. Anyone can access and download this information for free. Here you'll find links to a complete list of filings available through EDGAR and instructions for searching the EDGAR database.
Website Table of Contents
Quick EDGAR Tutorial
Search for Company Filings
Descriptions of SEC Forms
SEC Forms List (PDF versions)
About EDGAR
Search EDGAR Comment Letters
FTP Users
Indices
SIC Codes
Information for EDGAR Filers
How to Request Paper Documents
http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml
The complete articles may be read at the URLs provided for each.
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