XBRL ("eXtensible Business Reporting Language") is a standard specification that allows users to exchange financial information across all software and technologies, including the Internet. Once financial statement information, for example, has been tagged in XBRL it allows greater interoperability for more powerful analysis and quicker discovery across all software formats and delivery channels.

"We're excited to be moving forward with the development of XBRL. The key advantage for our customer base is once they are able to automatically provide XBRL from their accounting systems, we gain more confidence in the quality and timeliness of the financial information. The use of XBRL will reduce large amounts of manual processing and re-keying of data from all players involved in the financial information supply chain," said Brian Staples, Vice President of Information Technology, Bank of America.    

"XBRL will benefit all users of the financial information supply chain--public and private companies, the accounting profession, regulators, analysts, the investment community, capital markets and lenders, as well as key third parties such as software developers and data aggregators," said Mike Willis, chairman of the XBRL Organization Steering Committee and a partner with PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

XBRL.org also announced that the next international meeting of the consortium will be held in Berlin, Germany on March 4-8, 2002. The purpose of this meeting will be to finalize the International Accounting Standards Board's (IAS) XBRL taxonomy for financial statements.

For more information about XBRL, visit http://www.xbrl.org