SEC delays meeting on XBRL rule - Updated

Updated: SEC spokesman John Nester told Financial Week that “the meeting was postponed because the commission needed time to prepare and approve testimony for tomorrow’s Senate Banking Committee hearing, at which SEC chairman Christopher Cox is scheduled to testify on the role of credit rating agencies in the current liquidity crisis.” Original post follows.

THE much anticipated meeting on Monday where the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was expected to consider a rule to make XBRL mandatory was postponed for three weeks late Friday afternoon.

The SEC gave no reasons for delaying the meeting to May 14 . As late as 2:00pm ET on Friday when the SEC was holding a conference call with a group of bloggers that was attended by Chairman Chris Cox, it seemed that it was all systems go for the Monday meeting.

An SEC spokesperson contacted by Reuters gave no reasons for the delay. A notice announcing the change on the SEC’s website said: “At times, changes in Commission priorities require alterations in the scheduling of meeting items.”

The commissioners were scheduled to consider a rule to make XBRL mandatory for corporate issuers, likely beginning with large companies in 2009.

The fact that the SEC gave no reasons for the cancellation strikes me as a bit strange given how much interest there was in Monday’s meeting.

XBRL US was planning a press conference for Tuesday featuring nine panelists including the president of XBRL US Mark Bolgiano, two CEOs of leading XBRL vendors, and representatives from the issuer, accounting and investor communities. That event is now canceled.

XBRL is perhaps the defining initiative of Chairman Cox’s term, so I can’t easily think of any other “Commission priorities” that would bump it.

But hey, stuff happens so I don’t want to speculate any further other than to say it must be serious.

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