SEC Chairman Christopher Cox disclosed the plan Tuesday after announcing a milestone in the technology required to standardize corporate filings. An industry group supported by the SEC has translated all the data required under the United States' Generally Accepted Accounting Principles into computer codes, known as data tags, to facilitate comparison of sections within financial reports almost instantly among different companies.

The development - which Cox likened to the Saturn rocket explorations that prepared the way for the moon landings - removes "the last major obstacle" for investors wanting to download data from financial filings with the same ease that they can search the Internet, Cox said.

Several companies have voluntarily filed so-called interactive data written in XBRL, or extensible business reporting language format, for two years, developing methods that other filers can now more efficiently adopt, the SEC Chairman said. Firms in the pilot had to customize many of their own data tags, a task now facilitated by the new mapping codes.

Cox said he has asked the heads of the regulatory agency's division to make recommendations by year's end on mandatory adoption of the new filing format. Commission members would likely decide next spring on whether to propose a rule, Cox said, which could go into effect by fall of 2008.

The SEC plans to transform its own vast database of financial information, known as EDGAR, into the new format. Companies that file reports, as well as investors, should benefit from the new format because it removes much of the drudgery from filing and inputting errors from third-party firms that transmit data to investors, Cox said.