The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has this week completed an upgrade of its interactive data rendering engine, the software in the Edgar system which turns interactive data files into a human readable document. The XBRL-based reporting and disclosure system now features more accurate rendering of key data items such as currency symbols and data tags.
The upgrade includes improved handling of mixed data types, units and decimals within the same presentation group and the SEC has updated Level 4 detail rendering to ensure complete display of all tagged data. It has corrected the currency symbol logic so non-monetary amounts do not have currency symbols shown and updated character encoding to ensure proper display of the euro and other symbols.
The SEC has added enhanced statement of stockholders’ equity rendering and the ability to show the report of uncategorised items even if the filing renders with hundreds of separate reports.
The regulator has been working to improve its technology capabilities in light of its increased use of XBRL data tags. This is all part of the SEC’s sustained campaign to get XBRL tagging embedded within the US financial services community. The regulator has mandated XBRL tagging for financial reporting but, along with XBRL US, is also keen to extend its reach into other areas that it believes would benefit from the data tags such as corporate actions, proxy voting and structured products data.
The rendering engine source code is available to download from the SEC website here.
