An XBRL heads-up from Chairman Cox

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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.

And one of the arguments the SEC chairman intends to make to all of the doubting Thomases is that XBRL is vital to the international competitiveness of America’s capital markets and its public companies.

Headlined Chairman Cox, Overseas Counterparts Meet to Discuss Interactive Data Timetable, the release provides an update on progress towards mandatory XBRL filings in countries such as Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, Israel and Canada. The message is that some of these countries are far ahead of the U.S.

Oddly, the statement doesn’t actually mention anything about the timetable for U.S. companies except to include the following comment from the chairman in the last paragraph:

“Without question, 2008 will be a watershed year for interactive data.”

You’ve been put on notice.

Dominic Jones

Dominic (bio & disclosures) is IR Web Report‘s founder and an online investor relations consultant. He advises leading public companies and investor relations service providers worldwide on using the web for disclosure, engagement and profile building. You can contact him via the contacts page.