Microfinance Focus, Dec. 2, 2009: The Microfinance Information Exchange, Inc. has announced that the microfinance taxonomy it developed has been officially acknowledged by XBRL International, the ordinating body for all XBRL activities and standards.

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is an open-source technology that is ideal for acunting and business purposes, and is used by leaders in the financial and banking industries, including the FDIC and SEC in the United States; The Bank of Japan, the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Shanghai Stock Exchange in ; and banking supervisors and regulators throughout Europe. MIX recently implemented XBRL as their platform for performance, financial and operational data on microfinance institutions (MFIs).

“XBRL will allow us to more efficiently process the large amounts of data we receive from MFIs throughout the developing world. It will also enurage richer data on microfinance, increasing transparency without increasing the reporting burden on MFIs. With XBRL, MFIs reporting to MIX do not have to use new technology or change the way they report to us,” said Stt Gaul, manager of product development at MIX. “MFIs can have numerous reporting requirements – to donor anizations, investors, regulators and more. More anizations are using XBRL, and now that we have a mmon taxonomy for microfinance, we hope to rce the reporting burden for MFIs through use of appropriate technology standards.”

The microfinance taxonomy developed by MIX is based on IFRS – International Financial Reporting Standards – with additional ncepts and relationships specific to microfinance. “Using IFRS as the basis of the taxonomy allows for a direct link to an acunting standard in use in over 100 untries worldwide and closer alignment of microfinance with mainstream markets,” Mr. Gaul stated.

Eudaimonia nsulting, LLC and Business Reporting – Advisory Group have helped MIX to develop the taxonomy.