XBRL Europe is committed to aid in the development of XBRL deliverables in order to facilitate the drafting of European standards. Several working groups are active in this field.
Business registers interoperability: context
The legal and economic data provided by the business registers are used for financial analysis, anti-money laundering, risk measurement and regulatory compliance. Efforts have been made to improve interoperability for exchanging financial reports of the European companies in response to the need for better transparency in financial information. As more of the business registers in Europe now use XBRL as a common standard, they also have developed their network.
The XBRL Europe Business Registers working group, supervised by Thomas Verdin (CEO of THEIA Partners) has developed a “Core Reference Taxonomy” to improve interoperability and allow easier comparisons between company profiles and company financial statements across Europe.
A “Core reference taxonomy”: for a better interoperability of company data
At least ten business registers or equivalent entities in member states (National Bank of Belgium, Bundesanzeiger, Erhvervs- og Selskabsstyrelsen, Infogreffe, Registrite ja Infosüsteemide Keskus, Infocamere, Kamer van Koophande, Companies Houses...) use XBRL to dematerialize company profiles and key financial figures.
They are willing to implement a common Core Reference list of indicators. This is an opportunity to define a normalized list of concepts used in company identification and financial statements across Europe. The list would be used to :
- Identify common concepts : those which can be considered as “reference”, shared in every financial statement across Europe
- Identify main concepts : those which can be considered as “core” elements, which are relevant for end-users, focusing on a limited list as it is impossible to match every account or element of company identification across Europe.
- Identify a common formalization, using XBRL (taxonomy)
Consequently, the necessity to define a common reference taxonomy brings about a difficult challenge for the working group. Part of this challenge includes comparing local taxonomies and finding agreements on common points for main identification data, key figures and financial statements. This creates particular difficulties in that legal forms and accounting norms are not standardized in Europe. The working group is now working more specifically on financial statements. The objective for each European country is to match its local taxonomy to the Core Reference as closely as possible. As of now, mapping is being done in France and Italy, with others scheduled to join them soon.
Using a Core Reference Taxonomy will allow users to render filed documents in a more interactive way. This includes the possibility to display the financial statements of two companies (from two different countries) with similar concepts in front of each other. The Core Reference Taxonomy will emphasize the link with common concepts (identity, address, main figures in balance sheet and income statement) and national specificities using a presentation linkbase.
Experimental work is currently being made by different editors, such as Invoke, Xedix, and Fujitsu, based on this mapping and the Core Reference Taxonomy. A presentation is scheduled in Roma, for the next XBRL Europe meeting. Editors will ensure storage, request and rendering, and propose calculation of cross border ratios wherever the publishing company is registered.
by Geoffroy de Urtasun and Basile Meunier
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