Great article from the European Securities Market Authority on what EU public companies must do using the new Inline XBRL Global Data Standard for Better Transparency & Accountability by putting financial and non-financial financial statement info in a machine-readable format
The International Organization of Securities Organizations (IOSCO) issued a press release today stating that securities regulators from growth and emerging markets are seeking public feedback on proposed recommendations related to the development of sustainable finance in capital markets and the role of securities regulators in this area
With the recent news that the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a feedback statement setting out the use of Inline XBRL as the digital format which public companies in the European Union (EU) must use to report their company information to investors worldwide from January 1, 2020. Over the years the IMA has championed the use of XBRL as a machine-readable data format for financial reporting to promote greater transparency and accountability to support economic growth and new jobs in the capital markets. ESMA states in its disclosed press release that it has concluded that Inline XBRL is the most suitable technology to meet the EU requirement for issuers to report their annual financial reports in a single electronic format because it enables both machine and human readability in one document
The European Securities & Markets Authority (ESMA) has mandated that approximately 14,500 public companies must use Inline XBRL and tag their primary financial statements by 2020 and submit them in Inline XBRL. Alain Deckers, with the EU Commission said the EU Commission will mandate assurance on XBRL data reported by companies because these specific data elements can be extracted and used by the capital markets for other reports. More than 75% of the world’s capital markets are using XBRL (more than 100 regulators in 70 countries have mandated XBRL for regulatory reporting) but assurance has NOT been provided on the individual data elements contained in the disclosure filings… Providing assurances on XBRL data available to the capital markets can significantly enhance investor confidence of disclosed data consumed by investors
Smaller companies and organizations – including government enterprises are all moving toward effective sustainability reporting to the capital markets. Importance of Diversity and Inclusion Having an active diversity and inclusion strategy and disclosing these metrics included in the financial report also builds the business case to attract an increasing number of investors looking for this additional data disclosure. The US House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee just created a Diversity and Inclusion subcommittee (the first in the nation’s history) to examine this important human capital topic and to understand what companies are disclosing this data, why and how the capital markets and government can support better disclosure
For more than 10 years – the US SEC has been using the XBRL data format for machine-reading of US Public Company Financial Statements as well as the US FDIC for US Bank Call Reports to support better transparency and accountability of the capital markets. The US SEC is now positioned to build-out the use of XBRL across the US capital markets
Data can be moved into a machine-readable format for instant diagnostics to determine exceptions for review to protect investors and the capital markets with minimal paperwork