People have long considered corporate actions an area in which XBRL could make a huge difference. A perennial bane of brokerages and custodians, corporate actions to this day are often processed by hand and often lead to mistakes when translating and delivering notices to stockholders.

XBRL US has long suggested that tagging corporate actions in XBRL would be a wise move for the entire stock ownership eco-system. It made good on its word this month when it announced the availability of its Corporate Actions Taxonomy, which was developed as part of the Issuer to Investor: Corporate Actions initiative, sponsored by DTCC, SWIFT and XBRL US. The new service basically standardizes the old text-based notices "Into electronic documents that can be used by issuers to ensure written words hold the same meaning for all parties throughout the corporate actions lifecycle.  Having issuers electronically tag corporate actions data in XBRL allows it to be delivered straight from the issuer to the investor without rekeying or interpretation through multiple interfaces."

It's unclear how the end investor will receive this tagged information. But the fact that it is tagged means that it can be readily accessed. As proof of concept, XBRL US is working with Citi on a pilot program to process notices of dividend payment announcements for American Depositary Receipts (ADRs).