Edgar Online has entered a joint venture with Universal Business Matrix to develop a global XBRL data exchange and repository for company financial information.
The joint venture, Edgar Analyst, will initially offer tagged XBRL statements from annual and quarterly financial reports on US public companies. The companies say they intend to work with stock exchanges and others to establish similar linked repositories internationally.
Tools will also be created to help companies convert their data for submission into the repository or to regulatory agencies. Data and tools will be sold on a subscription and licensing basis.
Miklos Vasarhelyi, KPMG professor of AIS at Rutgers University believes the venture will fill a major need in the financial marketplace.
"Using the XBRL standard to create a repository of reliable data will allow immediate data comparison and analysis in the friendly environment of your desktop," he says. "Financial decisions that are often based on inadequate information will now have a reality basis of rapidly published and template-analysed data."