BPB White Papers

From time to time the BPB will publish white papers on matters of interest to the XBRL mmunity. This is where you will find them.

Financial Supervision Reporting and XBRL -  October 14, 2010

Financial supervision reporting requires two key enablers: data auracy and the ability to meet various reporting requirements simultaneously. It is difficult to execute supervisory objectives effectively if the data lacks auracy. And, needless to say, it is extremely difficult to recapture the auracy if it is lost at the submission stage. From a reporting requirements perspective, both international and national reporting requirements need to be met and harmonized. In this paper, we discuss how XBRL can be applied to meet the needs of financial supervision reporting.

This paper has been authored by Makoto Koizumi of Fujitsu, Japan and Yoshiaki Wada of NTT Data rporation. formerly of the Bank of Japan, Chair and Board of Directors Liaison to the Best Practices Board respectively, for XBRL International Inc..

XBRL or Customized XML? -  October 14, 2010

A mmon decision facing anizations implementing information technology (IT) systems for business reporting is the selection of the appropriate technology standard to represent the information being reported.  This discussion frequently focuses on whether to develop customized software using Extensible Markup Language (XML), or whether the project would benefit from the additional richness of information that can be expressed by using the freely available open standard Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). XBRL is an application of XML using W3C  standards to provide not only a vocabulary for business reporting but also a means of unambiguously representing the semantics, or meaning, of the information being reported.

This paper is intended for decision makers involved in the planning or approval of projects that uld potentially use XBRL. It is at a high-level such that a technical understanding of XBRL and XML are not necessary. The discussion is relevant across anization types, including large (or small) for profit enterprise, all levels of ernment, and prudential and securities regulators. Examples illustrate the decision process used by anizations charged with prudential oversight, ernment regulators, rporations, and novel implementations (sustainability) in their decision to ultimately choose an XBRL solution. The paper ncludes with a discussion of some of the issues involved in making the decision between XBRL and customized XML.

This paper has been authored by Dr. Stephanie Farewell, Associate Professor of Acunting at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for the Best Practices Board of XBRL International inc.