Cox to announce IDEA will replace EDGAR

YESTERDAY afternoon, a number of bloggers got an email inviting them to a press conference webcast today with US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Chris Cox where he is supposed to unveil a “futuristic information disclosure system for investors and markets.”

No further details on this new system were provided, but at least one bit of information appears to have been leaked ahead of time to Washington Post reporter Christopher Twarowski.

According to an article on the front page of the Post’s business section, EDGAR is to be replaced by an XBRL-based platform called IDEA, short for Interactive Data Electronic Applications. I don’t believe that acronym or name has been used publicly before by anyone at the SEC. A search for it on the SEC’s website turned up nothing.

That’s actually all that is new in Twarowski’s article. The rest of the article rehashes what everyone already knows. XBRL is the greatest thing since the spreadsheet, not everyone likes it, but it’s going to go ahead regardless.

One other possible piece of news, but I’m almost sure it’s an error, is that “all corporations and mutual funds” will have to file in XBRL within two years. I thought it was three years, but I’m going on information that is publicly available.

If you want to hear for yourself what is in store for EDGAR, you can view the live webcast at 11:00 ET. I expect that we will hear a lot about XBRL and the SEC’s 21st Century Disclosure Initiative.

I’ll be on the webcast and will have the opportunity to ask questions as one of the invited bloggers. If you have any questions you’d like me to pass along, let me know.

Related:

SEC seeks to “blow up” forms-based system (June 25, 2008)

SEC posts text of proposed XBRL rule (May 30, 2008)

SEC proposes rule to make XBRL mandatory (May 15, 2008)

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