Written by Bob Schneider Posted on November 15, 2007

There has been more evidence in recent days that movement toward an XBRL mandate for US companies is accelerating.

According to Reuters, John White, head of the division of corporate finance at the SEC, told attendees at the Financial Executives International conference in New York City that “The staff has been asked to make a recommendation (on XBRL)….Translate that to mean a rule proposal on how this would be phased in.” Speaking at the same conference, Conrad Hewitt, the SEC’s chief accountant, said “Stay tuned on XBRL; it’s coming down the pipe very fast.”

In addition, Dominic Jones of the IR Web Report noted this SEC press release last weekend from Japan where Chairman Cox was meeting with security regulators from several countries. Dominic comments:

I’m sure there are other ways to interpret a news release issued last night from Tokyo by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox, but my reading is that it’s telegraphing that mandatory XBRL is coming next year.

I frankly don’t read as much into the statement as Dominic does, although I do agree that Chairman Cox’s comment that “Without question, 2008 will be a watershed year for interactive data” is very interesting.

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