Written by nor O’Kelly     Posted on February 11, 2009

nor O’Kelly is a member of the International Steering mmittee (ISC) of XBRL International and Chair of the Jurisdiction Department for 2009. He has ten years’ background in global IT managed services, global project management, and strategic IT business planning with Hewlett-Packard and Ericsson. Mr. O’Kelly is a Chartered Aountant with an MSc in IT Management and a past member of the uncil of the Institute of Chartered Aountants in Ireland.

It’s fabled that The King is dead! Long live the King! was first proclaimed in France in 1422, when Charles VII ascended to the throne upon the death of his father Charles VI. 

It’s rumored that XBRL is dead! Long live XBRL! was first declared in Florida in 2009, as the changing of the XBRL International Guard took place in an uncharacteristically chilly Miami in January.

But the serious tone of the XBRL International Steering mmittee meeting was unequivocal:  XBRL is no longer a spectator sport. The gears have shifted from “neutral” to “drive,” and even a passing visit to the renowned Miami Ink Tattoo Studio on South Beach failed to mask the businesslike tone of this ISC meeting.

What is different about 2009 is that this is the year when a number of heavyweight regulator projects move from ncept, pilot, or voluntary filing into live production with mandated filing.

XBRL Initiatives Aelerate
Pressure mounts in all geographic regions for transparency and adequacy of ntrols in banking supervision. Only mere months after XBRL was touted as the solution to Enron, the global banking sector is ming under pressure to produce solutions for transparency and risk management woes. The mmittee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) ntinues its flagship XBRL FINREPREP IFRS/Basel II program, now aompanied by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) project, as well as the increasing possibility of similar adoption in Latin America (led by Argentina, Brazil, and Chile). The US-based FDIC quarterly call reports program ntinues as well.

By early January, the influential IBM Global Data ernance uncil called for submissions from banks, financial institutions, rporations, vendors, and regulators to create a standards-based approach to risk reporting in response to an industry-wide need for standardized risk data. The significance of Big Blue entering the debate wasn’t lost on any of the mmentators mindful of its potential to influence global risk management, or the ERP vendors who have been waiting for demand to reach critical mass before also entering the fray.

The stage is now set for global enterprise XBRL applications to deploy in 2009 alongside the desk drag-and-tag toolsets that have beme a familiar client-side mpanion of data taggers around the world. Mandatory adoption along with the appropriate infrastructure investment will characterize XBRL adoption this year.  

Aept or not the criticism of US SEC Chairman x for being too slow in reacting to the Madoff scandal and the financial meltdown, he did champion the protection of the individual investor by mandating that all US SEC publicly quoted mpanies file in XBRL by 2011. Equally important, mutual funds (with $10 trillion in assets) along with credit rating agencies are mandated in 2009 to file financials in XBRL. In limited circumstances, they will also publish these XBRL statements on their mpany Web s alongside their traditional paper-based financials.

Progress in and Europe
In , the influential Chinese Securities Regulatory mmission (CSRC) takes its place at the XBRL International Steering mmittee table as a significant regional influencer, on the heels of their mandatory filing program for publicly quoted Chinese mpanies. Equally notable is Singapore’s Aounting & rporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA):  they have a regional mandatory filing program, have joined as a direct participant in XII, and will likely drive regional adoption in the Southeast region.

The fledgling XBRL India jurisdiction will increasingly invigorate the near market with the promise of offshore outsourcing of data tagging and the vibrant support for local Basel II-based banking supervision, led by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and other local regulators.

The work programs of XBRL Europe, the nsortium of EU jurisdictions formed in 2008, ntinue to gather pace. The European Federation of Aounts (FEE) has mobilized a technical taskforce to examine the ic, and the equally influential Global Aounting Alliance, mprising nine of the world’s leading aounting institutions, has thrown the ic open for discussion.

Inevitably, the traditional chummy, evangelical XBRLfests are now a thing of the past. In June, the 19th XBRL International nference returns to Paris, the birthplace of Charles VI, and it is focused on exploring real practicalities of global and region-wide ernment and regulation projects. Attendees are expected to bring real solutions to real problems. Spectators beware -- your day has passed. Le XBRL est mort, Vive le XBRL!