XBRL US warns against rolling back digital disclosure
XBRL US has written to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) opposing any XBRL exemption for smaller filers, responding to the Commission’s proposals to simplify filer status for reporting companies.
The SEC’s proposal would move more than half of today’s Large Accelerated Filers into the Non-Accelerated Filer pool. This means over 1,000 companies facing extended deadlines, scaled down disclosures and exemptions. Pay versus performance data and some block text tagging would stop being reported altogether. The Commission also asked whether the smallest filers should be released from XBRL requirements entirely.
President and CEO Campbell Pryde’s answer is a clear no. These companies have filed in structured format for years and already have the systems to do it. Nor can the proposal be read in isolation: alongside Semiannual Reporting and Registered Offering Reform, the SEC is simultaneously considering reducing how much is disclosed and how often. It is not clear that the Commission is sensibly measuring the impacts on investors that rely on structured data from smaller companies, not least because alternative information available about their activities and performance within markets is limited.
Investor protection and capital formation work together rather than against each other, and confidence in accessible, timely, transparent disclosure is precisely what draws capital in.
Read the comment letter here.
