The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has awarded contracts totaling 54 million dollars to transform its EDGAR company information database, saying this paved the way for universal filing in XBRL by companies. The contracts include $5.5 million with XBRL US to complete the production of taxonomies, or XBRL dictionaries, which US companies will use to file their financial data, and $48 million with Keane Federal Systems to modernize and maintain the EDGAR database.

More than two dozen companies have already agreed to participate in a new SEC program to test the use of XBRL for financial reporting.  The companies will help explore how XBRL can improve the financial reporting process, provide feedback to the SEC and enable investors and analysts to assess new techniques for analyzing interactive data.  The SEC had offered incentives to companies to take part in its XBRL voluntary filing programme, promising quicker reviews of registration statements and annual reports.  XBRL-US meanwhile said it was offering substantial educational and training support for companies taking part in the prgramme. 

The SEC has announced plans for its own XBRL analysis tools which will run on the Web and enable investors and analysts to benefit from XBRL data.   It has also asked the software industry to add support for interactive data to its accounting and financial reporting software. 

SEC chairman Christopher Cox has said the SEC will help lead the implementation of interactive data, seeking results in months not years.  See Member Press Releases for a series of statements by the SEC chairman.