Posted on Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Focus of event on SEC mandate, issuer to investor dialogue and way forward

WASHINGTON, DC/ — XBRL US, the nonprofit consortium for XML business reporting, announced newly confirmed keynotes at the upcoming conference “XBRL Financial Reporting: Advancing Transparency, Transforming the Dialogue” to be held on November 17-18, 2009 at the Mariott Marquis in New York City. The conference will focus on gaining a practical understanding of the new XBRL reporting requirements for public companies and on improving communication between public companies and investors through data and technology standards. Keynote speakers featured at the conference will be:

  • Kathleen L. Casey, Commissioner, United States Securities and Exchange Commission
  • Donald F. Donahue, Chairman and CEO, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC)
  • James P. Donovan, Senior Executive Vice President, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)
  • Marie N. Hollein, CTP(CD) President and CEO, Financial Executives International (FEI)
  • Jeff Morgan, President and CEO, National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI)
  • Kurt Schacht, JD, CFA, Managing Director, CFA Institute Centre for Financial Market Integrity

“The past year in the financial markets has proven the importance of transparency and open communication between issuers and investors. New technology standards can be part of the solution to improve that connection and make it easier for shareholders to better understand companies’ risk and value,” said Kurt Schacht, CFA Institute Centre for Financial Market Integrity.

Highlights about the conference include:

  • Panel on the impact of XBRL on analysis – expectations from the buy- and sell-side and from public companies on how day-to-day activities and the manner of communication will change with structured financial statements and other public company messages
  • Educational training sessions for senior financial executives on creating XBRL-formatted financial statements, including mapping to US GAAP elements, detailed footnote tagging, and validation. CPE credit is available
  • In-depth review of the SEC XBRL mandate to date – what’s working, what’s not as told by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the audit community and financial executives at public companies
  • Future developments in XBRL – corporate actions, proxy statements, mortgage backed securities and more

The conference will be held in association with FEI (Financial Executives International), and will directly follow FEI’s conference, “Current Financial Reporting Issues” which runs November 16-17, 2009.

Who should attend? Company preparers (both public and private), investor relations officers, corporate secretaries, legal community, investors, analysts, software providers, data intermediaries.

Complimentary media passes are available – please contact Lynne.Hasluck@xbrl.us for more information.

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, the Risk Return Summary in mutual fund prospectuses and the Schedule of Investments under 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:

For XBRL US Web site – www.xbrl.us
For information about the conference – http://xbrl.us/events/Pages/NatCon2009.aspx

Contacts:

Michelle Savage
Vice President, Communications
XBRL US
917-747-1714
michelle.savage@xbrl.us