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Financial reporters have taken to calling XBRL “Cox’s baby.” But SEC Chairman Christopher Cox is simply trying to get U.S. companies to catch up! A quick review of recent announcements from global exchanges shows that the U.S. is a late comer to eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), and our involvement long overdue!

China: The Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission, which governs the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, was the first capital market in the world to mandate XBRL reporting. Like the U.S., China began with a voluntary program, but now receives XBRL filings from more than 1,400 public companies.

Japan: Japan will be mandating that all listed public companies report using XBRL for their full financial statements beginning with quarterly reporting in the second quarter of 2008.

Korea: The Korean Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman and Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) established a voluntary XBRL filing program in 2006.  In October 2007, all publicly held companies were required to file financial statements using XBRL on the electronic filing system of the FSS.

Canada: The Ontario Securities Commission launched an XBRL voluntary filing program last year through which issuers can voluntarily file financial statements in XBRL format.

Australia: Last month Australia announced funding a comprehensive initiative to adopt XBRL which is scheduled to go live mid-2010, with proofs-of-concept and pilot programs beginning in 2008.

Israel: Financial reporting by all listed Israeli public companies will be tagged using XBRL beginning in 2008.

USA: The U.S. reached a necessary milestone at the end of 2007 with the completion of the XBRL taxonomies for the U.S. GAAP.  While the SEC’s XBRL filing program is still voluntary, the SEC’s Chief Accountant, Conrad Hewitt, predicts the XBRL regulations are “coming down the pipe very fast.”

The history of XBRL in the U.S. began in 1998 with a collaborative XBRL effort by a few founding members, including EDGAR Online, which has had an active role in helping XBRL become adopted around the world. Because of our active participation in worldwide developments, why we can say with certainly that XBRL is not just Chairman Cox’s baby: he is simply urging the U.S. to keep its pace in a global economy.