XBRL US and NIEM to Explore Harmonization of Standards for Government Reporting and Technology
WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ — XBRL US, the XML standard setter for business information reporting, announced today that its Chief Standards Officer, Campbell Pryde, will present at the NIEM (National Information Exchange Model), National Training Event in Baltimore, Maryland on September 30, 2009, which will focus on guidance, resources and tools to aid in the exchange of information for government reporting.
NIEM is the XML-based information exchange framework for U.S. government agencies and organizations, and XBRL US is the XML standard setter for business information reporting in the U.S. NIEM and XBRL are open, free standards with significant adoption momentum and proven applications. The two organizations also announced an initiative to investigate how to leverage the strengths of both standards towards better government reporting. Representatives from NIEM spoke at the XBRL US Board of Directors meeting on August 10, 2009 to discuss the topic of closer harmonization of the complementary standards.
NIEM focuses on standardizing transaction exchanges of non-financial elements used across all levels of government. XBRL US’ digital dictionary contains elements for financial data reporting that are currently used by U.S. public companies to report US GAAP financial statements. Leveraging the strengths of both standards is expected to result in greater transparency, accuracy and consistency in government reporting.
“XBRL has successfully provided the technology infrastructure for data standards like US GAAP and is starting work to incorporate the ISO 20022 standard for corporate actions announcements.Working with the accepted NIEM government information exchange standard is a logical extension of that model,” said Campbell Pryde, XBRL US, “I look forward to a mutual exchange of information with NIEM members at the training event and going forward.”
NIEM was established by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security in collaboration with organizations across all levels of government to effectively and efficiently share critical information at key decision points throughout the justice, public safety, emergency and disaster management, intelligence and homeland security enterprise. NIEM is designed to develop, disseminate, and support enterprise-wide information exchange standards and processes to enable jurisdictions to automate information sharing.
“NIEM helps government agencies connect and speak the same language concerning non-financial, business information. XBRL provides not only the financial statement standard, but also the technology infrastructure to optimize transport and increase the accuracy of the information. We look forward to Campbell bringing that message to our members so that we can begin a real dialogue between the two organizations,” said Donna Roy, Executive Director, NIEM.
XBRL US is the nonprofit consortium for XML business reporting standards and is responsible for bringing together a cross-industry effort to convert US GAAP accounting requirements and common practices into a standard digital dictionary for more transparent reporting by publicly-traded companies. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has mandated the use of XBRL for public company, mutual funds and credit rating agency reporting.
To register for the NIEM National Training Event, go to https://www.iir.com/registration/niem/registration.cfm.
About XBRL
XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) is a royalty-free, open specification for software that uses XML data tags to describe business and financial information for public and private companies and other organizations. XBRL benefits all members of the information supply chain by utilizing a standards-based method with which users can prepare, publish in a variety of formats, exchange and analyze business and financial statements and the information they contain.
About XBRL US
XBRL US is the non-profit consortium for XML business reporting standards in the United States and is a jurisdiction of XBRL International. It represents the business information supply chain, including accounting firms, software companies, financial databases, financial printers and government agencies. Its mission is to support the implementation of XML business reporting standards through the development of taxonomies relevant for use by US public and private sectors, working with a goal of interoperability between sectors, and by promoting adoption of these taxonomies through the collaboration of all business reporting supply chain participants. XBRL US has developed taxonomies to support U.S. GAAP and common reporting practices under a contract with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The XBRL US GAAP Taxonomies are available for review at http://xbrl.us/taxonomies/Pages/US-GAAP2009.aspx.
Links: www.xbrl.us
CONTACT: Michelle Savage, Vice President, Communication, XBRL US, Inc., michelle.savage@xbrl.us, +1-917-747-1714
