On December 30, 2014, the SEC announced the launch of a pilot program intended to facilitate investor analysis and comparisons of reporting company financial data. Under the new program, the SEC's Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (Division) will combine and organize financial data provided by reporting companies into structured data sets. The Division will then post the data sets for bulk downloads on the SEC's website.

The data sets initially will contain financial statement data from eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) exhibits filed with the SEC. The data posted in the data sets will be as reported by filers, with no changes being made to the information provided. Each data set will include all of the relevant filings submitted for the particular quarter or year. Data sets for all quarters from 2009 through 2014 have already been posted.

Later this year, the data sets will be expanded to include data from footnotes to the financial statements.

The pilot program builds on an assessment of custom tag rates in XBRL exhibits issued by the Division in July 2014, as well as letters sent to certain companies regarding required calculations in their XBRL exhibits (see Legal Update, SEC Issues XBRL Guidance).

For more information on XBRL reporting, see Practice Note, XBRL Reporting Requirements.