Two thirds of the 500 largest public mpanies are prepared to begin using interactive data-tagging technology to file their financial statements, acrding to a new survey.

Near the end of former Securities and Exchange mission Chairman Chrisher x’s tenure, the SEC mandated that public mpanies begin filing their financial statements using Extensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL, technology. The technology promises to help investors and analysts mpare financial statements across mpanies and industries.

The first mpanies required to file in XBRL format were the 500 largest mpanies with a “worldwide public float” of at least $5 billion as of the end of the send fiscal quarter of their most recently mpleted fiscal year (see SEC Begins XBRL Mandate for First 500 panies). They are supposed to start filing XBRL-formatted financials beginning with the fiscal quarter ending on or after June 15, 2009.

All other large aelerated filers must mply starting with their June 15, 2010, fiscal quarter. All other publicly traded mpanies and foreign private issuers will be required to mply starting with their June 15, 2011, fiscal quarter.

At least 340 of the first 500 mpanies are ready to file in XBRL format, acrding to a survey by XBRL US, the nonprofit nsortium that promotes and sets standards for XBRL in this untry. The anization also maintains the U.S. GAAP taxonomy, or dictionary, used by filers to mply with the SEC mandate.

“These XBRL financial statements represent almost $7 trillion in market capitalization, over 50 percent of the total market cap for all publicly traded mpanies reporting to the SEC,” said XBRL US chairman Alfred R. Berkeley, who also chairs Pipeline Financial Systems. “We’re at critical mass and looking forward to extending investor benefits to other asset classes in the future.”

XBRL US finalized and released the 2009 version of the U.S. GAAP Taxonomy on April 21, 2009 (see Official 2009 XBRL Taxonomy for GAAP Released). The current release inrporates industry changes and new FASB pronouncements, and is being used by public mpanies preparing their financial statements in XBRL to mply with the SEC mandate.

The taxonomy can be reviewed at http://xbrl.us/taxonomies/Pages/default.aspx.