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Yes, the lack of awareness, in the UK especially, surronding XBRL sits squarely with the regulators. I did a survey of UK and European banks earlier this year just looking at XBRL awareness - the lack of knowledge was staggering - and this was from interviewing people who worked directly with financial reporting.

The DTCC has a slight advantage in promoting XBRL because it is a utility. Seems so silly that there is no much mucking about over what is essentially a 'tag'.

You are right Gary, XBRL has been around for a while, and it is now having its moment. Mostly because it is being touted as a good method for standardising financial reporting and in turn monitoring possible clues to predicting systemic risk. And we all know today is all about systemic risk (is there any other kind?)

However, there are some stumbling blocks to XBRL acceptance. Global regulatory authorities, while supporting XBRL have not gone as far as to require its use, although the SEC is adding an XBRL requirement soon.

The other issue is, of course, XML. While most buy side firms don't use Swift, smaller firms and buy-side firms may have trouble with the investment needed and system integration required to implement the XML-based XBRL. There is also the lack of widespread knowledge concerning XBRL and XML outside of the US.

The SEC has gone a long way to promote XBRL in the US. The thinking behind this requirement is that it will allow central banks to monitor possible causes of systemic risk more effectively.

I agree with you, XBRL is not a cure-all for the problems inherent in disparate financial reporting and corporate actions. What XBRL will do is allow financial filings to be tagged and organised in a more structured and standardised way.

Good luck with the new group!

I think everyone is missing the real story here. From initial Bloomberg HELP request to speaking with a real person took only six seconds.

If only the consumer world were that efficent we might have fewer Dads faking putting their little boys in perilous danger and causing national incidents.

No, 'Money, Money, Money' or the EBADay classic 'Opportunity' by the Pet Shop Boys?

"But what evidence is there of big banks building their own networks and feed handlers in-house?"

I've spoken to them (off the record - unfortunatly)

However, that article also says that the passwords were obtained by account holders being 'tricked' into handing over their log-ins and passwords. It was not a case of a hacker breaking through Microsoft security (an oxymoron, surely Ed.)

Must remember, keep your usernames close and your passwords closer.

However, her video did get her the desired result. BofA put her interest rate back to the origional rate. See here.

Prior to the impact of the credit crunch many banks failed to perform any liquidity related scenario analyses, simply because they did not anticipate that the liquidity inherent in the market would dry up.

Now, all anyone in the risk world can talk about is liquidity risk management. However, isn't this a bit liking taking a birth control pill in the third trimester?

The purpose of liquidity risk management is to identify potential future funding problems. To do that a bank must have a firm understanding of its net cash flows and the fungibility of its assets.

Reporting and communication should also be considered. Many banks still rely on email for quarterly risk reports. A more robust MIS system should be part of any bank's enhancement to their risk platforms.

Stress tests should be conducted regularly for several firm-specific and market-wide stress scenarios with the goal of identifying sources of potential liquidity strain. The results of stress tests should also play a key role in shaping the bank's contingency funding plan.

I wouldn't be so dismissive, Paul. The popularity of the iPhone is that you get apps, music, email, text, phone etc...all on one package. If the iPhone lives in your hand, why then not just use it for payment as well?

If the iPhone (or Blackberry or any other smartphone, really, let's be honest) were the reserved for young hipsters it would have gone the way of mullets and retro airplane bags.

Payments are just another app to be added to the menu.