Bank of America Announces XBRL Pilot

XBRL.org Finalizes Enhanced XML Schema-based Specification for Business Reporting Globally

Bank of America Announces Pilot of XBRL to Collect Financial Statements From National Customer Base

New York, NY, USA. December 21, 2001.

During its U.S. meeting held last week in Orlando, Florida, the XBRL.org Consortium announced that its enhanced XML schema-based specification for business reporting has been finalized and can now be used by companies and organizations to put financial statements and other reporting information into XBRL.

XBRL ("Extensible Business Reporting Language") is a standard specification that allows users to exchange financial information across all software and technologies, including the Internet. Once financial statement information, for example, has been tagged in XBRL it allows greater interoperability for more powerful analysis and quicker discovery across all software formats and delivery channels. The XBRL U.S. meeting in Orlando was attended by some of the world's largest financial, accounting and technology organizations to promote widespread corporate adoption of XBRL as a faster, cheaper and better financial reporting tool.

In other news, Bank of America, one of the world's largest financial service companies announced that XBRL is being piloted to collect data from its customers that are required to provide financial statements on a regular basis for lending and credit analysis purposes.

"We're excited to be moving forward with the development of XBRL. The key advantage for our customer base is once they are able to automatically provide XBRL from their accounting systems, we gain more confidence in the quality and timeliness of the financial information. The use of XBRL will reduce large amounts of manual processing and re-keying of data from all players involved in the financial information supply chain," said Brian Staples, Vice President of Information Technology, Bank of America. "Overall, XBRL can also provide tremendous assistance to financial service companies and their customers by providing more effective means of processing loans or reviewing credit information in a more timely and efficient manner."

"Companies tagging their financial statements in XBRL can immediately realize some of its major benefits: a streamlined financial reporting process, technology independence, full interoperability, and reliable extraction of financial information," said Brad Saegesser, consulting services manager, Moody's Risk Management Services. "And XBRL does not require a company to disclose any additional information beyond that which it normally discloses in its current financial statements. Costs for a user to implement XBRL will be minimal since its functionality is being built into software technology and operating procedures, allowing increased flexibility to prepare and extract financial statements according to the accounting principles of different jurisdictions."

In other news, EDGAR Online, an XBRL member, announced that it had launched XBRL Express (http://www.xbrl-express.com), a public repository for company financial statements tagged in XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) format. EDGAR Online, Inc. is a provider of financial information derived from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission data and developer of financial and business systems solutions. XBRL Express is a single source for analysts, investors, credit and lending institutions, news organizations and accountants to source company financials prepared and published in XBRL format. The repository will initially hold tagged XBRL statements from 80 companies in 12 industries.

"Today, XBRL Express represents the first step towards a centralized XBRL repository for all public companies," Liv Watson, Director of XBRL for EDGAR Online, Inc. "XBRL Express represents an important step in establishing our leadership position to take advantage of this groundbreaking method to manage financial data," said Susan Strausberg, CEO of EDGAR Online, Inc.

"XBRL will benefit all users of the financial information supply chain--public and private companies, the accounting profession, regulators, analysts, the investment community, capital markets and lenders, as well as key third parties such as software developers and data aggregators," said Mike Willis, chairman of the XBRL Organization Steering Committee and a partner with PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

XBRL.org in the U.S. also welcomed and praised the decision by the U.S. Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (JFMIP) in its November 2001 publication, "Core Financial Systems Requirements to recommend usage of XBRL for all U.S. federal government agencies. The JFMIP is a joint-initiative of U.S. federal agencies lead by the Department of Treasury, General Accounting Office, Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management.

XBRL.org also announced that the next international meeting of the consortium will be held in Berlin, Germany on March 4-8, 2002 with representatives from the largest accounting, financial services and technology companies attending. The purpose of this meeting will be to finalize the International Accounting Standards Board's (IAS) XBRL taxonomy for financial statements.

Many countries in Europe and Asia are using International Accounting Standards today. Countries like Australia can move forward with development and adoption of XBRL for financial statements using the work developed and supported by the IASB. XBRL incorporates standardized XML data tags formats in financial statements, thereby giving a consistent approach and application of the specification to a particular country's accounting principles so that if one can process an XBRL financial statement from Australia with the same tools used in England or Japan.

Interest in the XBRL specification has expanded internationally with the advent of other XML-based tools and solutions being used by various industry sector groups to exchange information across disparate systems and software formats.

Members of the XBRL.org Committee represent the largest financial, accounting and technology organizations from around the world. XBRL.org membership exceeds 130 organizations from around the world and is expanding as industry sectors and additional jurisdictions begin development of XBRL specifications for business reporting.

For more information about XBRL, please visit http://www.xbrl.org.

XBRL Committee

The XBRL Committee includes over 100 companies and international organizations such as: ACCPAC International, Inc.: ACL Services Ltd.; Advisor Technology Services, LLC; American Institute of CPAs; Andersen; Asia Securities Printing; Anthem Software; Audicon; Australian Prudential Regulation Authority; Australia and New Zealand Banking Group; Australian Stock Exchange; Bank of America: BDO Seidman, LLP; Beacon IT; Best Software; Bowne & Co., Inc.; Bridge Information Systems; Bryant College; Business Wire; California State University, Northridge; Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants; CaseWare International Inc.; Certified General Accountants of Canada Association of Canada; Cogniant, Inc.; Council of Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut van Registeraccountants (NIVRA); Count-net.com SA; CPA Australia; CPA2Biz; Crowe, Chizek and Company, LLP; Creative Solutions, Inc.; DATEV e.G.; Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS); Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu; Deutsche Bank AG; Deutsche Borse AG; Deutsche Bundesbank; Deutsche Vereinigung fur Finanzanalyse und Asset Management; Diva Software; Dow Jones & Company, Inc.; Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein; DRSC; EDGAR Online, Inc.; eKeeper.com; eLedger.com, Inc.; Elemental Interactive; e-Numerate Solutions Incorporated; ePace! Software; ePartners, Inc.; Epicor Software Corporation; Ernst & Young; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Fidelity Investments; Financial Reporting Solutions (Pty) Ltd.; Financial Software Group; FinArch; First Light Communications, Inc.; FRx Software Corporation; Fujitsu; Gcom2 Solutions; General Electric Company; Global Filings, Inc.; Grant Thornton LLP; Haarmann, Hemmelrath & Partner; Hitachi; Hitachi System and Services; HOLT Value Associates; Hong Kong Society of Accountants; Hyperion Solutions Corp.; IBM; IBMatrix; IDW; I-Lumen, Inc.; Information Management Australia Pty Ltd; Infoteria Corporation; InnoData GmbH; Innovision Corporation; Institut der Wirtschaftsprufer; Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia; Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales; Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland; Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Singapore; Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand; Institute of Management Accountants; International Accounting Standards Board; International Federation of Accountants J.P. Morgan Chase; Japan Digital Disclosure Inc.; Japan Notary Organization; JISA (Japan Information Service Industry Assn); KPMG; KPMG Consulting; Lawson Software; Microsoft Corporation; Microsoft Great Plains Software, Inc.; MIP, Inc.;MIS Deutschland GmbH; Moody's Risk Management Services, Inc.; Morgan Stanley; Multex.com, Inc.; National Center of Charitable Statistics (NCCS) National Information Infrastructure Enterprise Promotion Association (Taiwan); Navision; NEC Planning Research, Inc. (Japan); NetLedger, Inc.; New River, Inc.; Newtec; Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc.; Oinke, Inc.; PCA Software; PeopleSoft, Inc.; PPA GmbH; Practitioners Publishing Company; PricewaterhouseCoopers; R.R. Donnelley Financial; Reuters Group LP; RIA; Sage Software; SAP AG; Seattle Pacific University Center for Professional Development; Software AG; Standard and Poor's; Syspro; Takara Printing; Teikoku Data Bank; The Woodburn Group; Thomson Financial; Tokyo Shoko Research; U.S. Census Bureau; XBRL Solutions, Inc.

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See: "Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL)."

SEARCH Advanced Search ABOUT Site Map CP RSS Channel Contact Us Sponsoring CP About Our Sponsors NEWS Cover Stories Articles & Papers Press Releases CORE STANDARDS XML SGML Schemas XSL/XSLT/XPath XLink XML Query CSS SVG TECHNOLOGY REPORTS XML Applications General Apps Government Apps Academic Apps EVENTS LIBRARY Introductions FAQs Bibliography Technology and Society Semantics Tech Topics Software Related Standards Historic	Bank of America Announces XBRL Pilot XBRL.org Finalizes Enhanced XML Schema-based Specification for Business Reporting Globally Bank of America Announces Pilot of XBRL to Collect Financial Statements From National Customer Base New York, NY, USA. December 21, 2001. During its U.S. meeting held last week in Orlando, Florida, the XBRL.org Consortium announced that its enhanced XML schema-based specification for business reporting has been finalized and can now be used by companies and organizations to put financial statements and other reporting information into XBRL. XBRL ("Extensible Business Reporting Language") is a standard specification that allows users to exchange financial information across all software and technologies, including the Internet. Once financial statement information, for example, has been tagged in XBRL it allows greater interoperability for more powerful analysis and quicker discovery across all software formats and delivery channels. The XBRL U.S. meeting in Orlando was attended by some of the world's largest financial, accounting and technology organizations to promote widespread corporate adoption of XBRL as a faster, cheaper and better financial reporting tool. In other news, Bank of America, one of the world's largest financial service companies announced that XBRL is being piloted to collect data from its customers that are required to provide financial statements on a regular basis for lending and credit analysis purposes. "We're excited to be moving forward with the development of XBRL. The key advantage for our customer base is once they are able to automatically provide XBRL from their accounting systems, we gain more confidence in the quality and timeliness of the financial information. The use of XBRL will reduce large amounts of manual processing and re-keying of data from all players involved in the financial information supply chain," said Brian Staples, Vice President of Information Technology, Bank of America. "Overall, XBRL can also provide tremendous assistance to financial service companies and their customers by providing more effective means of processing loans or reviewing credit information in a more timely and efficient manner." "Companies tagging their financial statements in XBRL can immediately realize some of its major benefits: a streamlined financial reporting process, technology independence, full interoperability, and reliable extraction of financial information," said Brad Saegesser, consulting services manager, Moody's Risk Management Services. "And XBRL does not require a company to disclose any additional information beyond that which it normally discloses in its current financial statements. Costs for a user to implement XBRL will be minimal since its functionality is being built into software technology and operating procedures, allowing increased flexibility to prepare and extract financial statements according to the accounting principles of different jurisdictions." In other news, EDGAR Online, an XBRL member, announced that it had launched XBRL Express (http://www.xbrl-express.com), a public repository for company financial statements tagged in XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) format. EDGAR Online, Inc. is a provider of financial information derived from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission data and developer of financial and business systems solutions. XBRL Express is a single source for analysts, investors, credit and lending institutions, news organizations and accountants to source company financials prepared and published in XBRL format. The repository will initially hold tagged XBRL statements from 80 companies in 12 industries. "Today, XBRL Express represents the first step towards a centralized XBRL repository for all public companies," Liv Watson, Director of XBRL for EDGAR Online, Inc. "XBRL Express represents an important step in establishing our leadership position to take advantage of this groundbreaking method to manage financial data," said Susan Strausberg, CEO of EDGAR Online, Inc. "XBRL will benefit all users of the financial information supply chain--public and private companies, the accounting profession, regulators, analysts, the investment community, capital markets and lenders, as well as key third parties such as software developers and data aggregators," said Mike Willis, chairman of the XBRL Organization Steering Committee and a partner with PriceWaterhouseCoopers. XBRL.org in the U.S. also welcomed and praised the decision by the U.S. Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (JFMIP) in its November 2001 publication, "Core Financial Systems Requirements to recommend usage of XBRL for all U.S. federal government agencies. The JFMIP is a joint-initiative of U.S. federal agencies lead by the Department of Treasury, General Accounting Office, Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management. XBRL.org also announced that the next international meeting of the consortium will be held in Berlin, Germany on March 4-8, 2002 with representatives from the largest accounting, financial services and technology companies attending. The purpose of this meeting will be to finalize the International Accounting Standards Board's (IAS) XBRL taxonomy for financial statements. Many countries in Europe and Asia are using International Accounting Standards today. Countries like Australia can move forward with development and adoption of XBRL for financial statements using the work developed and supported by the IASB. XBRL incorporates standardized XML data tags formats in financial statements, thereby giving a consistent approach and application of the specification to a particular country's accounting principles so that if one can process an XBRL financial statement from Australia with the same tools used in England or Japan. Interest in the XBRL specification has expanded internationally with the advent of other XML-based tools and solutions being used by various industry sector groups to exchange information across disparate systems and software formats. Members of the XBRL.org Committee represent the largest financial, accounting and technology organizations from around the world. XBRL.org membership exceeds 130 organizations from around the world and is expanding as industry sectors and additional jurisdictions begin development of XBRL specifications for business reporting. For more information about XBRL, please visit http://www.xbrl.org. XBRL Committee The XBRL Committee includes over 100 companies and international organizations such as: ACCPAC International, Inc.: ACL Services Ltd.; Advisor Technology Services, LLC; American Institute of CPAs; Andersen; Asia Securities Printing; Anthem Software; Audicon; Australian Prudential Regulation Authority; Australia and New Zealand Banking Group; Australian Stock Exchange; Bank of America: BDO Seidman, LLP; Beacon IT; Best Software; Bowne & Co., Inc.; Bridge Information Systems; Bryant College; Business Wire; California State University, Northridge; Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants; CaseWare International Inc.; Certified General Accountants of Canada Association of Canada; Cogniant, Inc.; Council of Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut van Registeraccountants (NIVRA); Count-net.com SA; CPA Australia; CPA2Biz; Crowe, Chizek and Company, LLP; Creative Solutions, Inc.; DATEV e.G.; Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS); Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu; Deutsche Bank AG; Deutsche Borse AG; Deutsche Bundesbank; Deutsche Vereinigung fur Finanzanalyse und Asset Management; Diva Software; Dow Jones & Company, Inc.; Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein; DRSC; EDGAR Online, Inc.; eKeeper.com; eLedger.com, Inc.; Elemental Interactive; e-Numerate Solutions Incorporated; ePace! Software; ePartners, Inc.; Epicor Software Corporation; Ernst & Young; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Fidelity Investments; Financial Reporting Solutions (Pty) Ltd.; Financial Software Group; FinArch; First Light Communications, Inc.; FRx Software Corporation; Fujitsu; Gcom2 Solutions; General Electric Company; Global Filings, Inc.; Grant Thornton LLP; Haarmann, Hemmelrath & Partner; Hitachi; Hitachi System and Services; HOLT Value Associates; Hong Kong Society of Accountants; Hyperion Solutions Corp.; IBM; IBMatrix; IDW; I-Lumen, Inc.; Information Management Australia Pty Ltd; Infoteria Corporation; InnoData GmbH; Innovision Corporation; Institut der Wirtschaftsprufer; Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia; Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales; Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland; Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Singapore; Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand; Institute of Management Accountants; International Accounting Standards Board; International Federation of Accountants J.P. Morgan Chase; Japan Digital Disclosure Inc.; Japan Notary Organization; JISA (Japan Information Service Industry Assn); KPMG; KPMG Consulting; Lawson Software; Microsoft Corporation; Microsoft Great Plains Software, Inc.; MIP, Inc.;MIS Deutschland GmbH; Moody's Risk Management Services, Inc.; Morgan Stanley; Multex.com, Inc.; National Center of Charitable Statistics (NCCS) National Information Infrastructure Enterprise Promotion Association (Taiwan); Navision; NEC Planning Research, Inc. (Japan); NetLedger, Inc.; New River, Inc.; Newtec; Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc.; Oinke, Inc.; PCA Software; PeopleSoft, Inc.; PPA GmbH; Practitioners Publishing Company; PricewaterhouseCoopers; R.R. Donnelley Financial; Reuters Group LP; RIA; Sage Software; SAP AG; Seattle Pacific University Center for Professional Development; Software AG; Standard and Poor's; Syspro; Takara Printing; Teikoku Data Bank; The Woodburn Group; Thomson Financial; Tokyo Shoko Research; U.S. Census Bureau; XBRL Solutions, Inc. Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See: "Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL)."