Singapore, 13 January 2010 – Mr Peter Ong, Permanent Secretary (Finance), Ministry of Finance, and Chairman of the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), will be launching Open Analytics – an online financial analysis tool leveraging on the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) financial statements filings with ACRA – at a lunchtime seminar on Thursday, 14 January 2010.

The business community will now be able to access financial information of Singapore companies in an interactive and dynamic manner through Open Analytics to enhance their decision-making process.

Directors, management and shareholders can compare performance against peers to identify improvement opportunities. For banks, Open Analytics provides the financial information of the companies they extend credit to for regular credit risk assessments against the respective industries, particularly for small and medium entities. Entrepreneurs and investors can identify untapped niche areas and hidden gems in the Singapore corporate space. Analysts can use Open Analytics to monitor and analyse trend performance of companies or any specific industry sector.

Mr Phillip Overmyer, Chief Executive of the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce, commented, “I am impressed with how Open Analytics brought about a new perspective in analysing financial data. It is not about crunching the numbers anymore. Now we have key financial information presented in a most intuitive manner to support the process of making important business decisions.”

Open Analytics is the result of a pioneering public private partnership between ACRA and WHK Horwath, an Australian financial services firm, as part of ACRA’s Business Financials in XBRL (BizFinx) initiative. Open Analytics enables analysing large volumes of standardised financial data submitted in XBRL and using the dynamic business intelligence to benchmark companies’ performance.

Deputy Chief Executive of ACRA, Mr Ow Fook Chuen said: “When ACRA first introduced filing of financial statements in XBRL, it was aligned with our overall strategic direction of enabling a pro-enterprise financial reporting environment for businesses in Singapore. Now, the introduction of Open Analytics represents a shift from the focus of XBRL as a reporting language, to one which it is an enabler for a more effective and efficient dissemination mechanism to enhance financial information flow to the business community, both locally and internationally.”