"Greater transparency in business reporting is needed to help strengthen our economy and protect investors. The Enhanced Business Reporting Consortium is working to develop the tools that companies can use to communicate the information that is most important to their stakeholders."
David M. Walker
Comptroller General of the United States
U.S. General Accounting Office
ENHANCED BUSINESS REPORTING (EBR) improves the quality and transparency of information companies provide so investors and other key stakeholders can make better informed decisions. With EBR, the focus is on shifting the model from one that is based primarily on historical or lagging financial information to a model that incorporates relevant value drivers, financial and non-financial performance measures, and qualitative information around management’s strategy, plans, opportunities and risks. EBR delivers a broader view of current performance and a greater understanding of an entity’s future. Coupled with enabling technologies like XBRL, EBR will provide users the breadth of information they require at the speed they need to be successful in today’s economy.
Improved Decision Making
The Enhanced Business Reporting Consortium (www.ebr360.org) is leading the effort to improve information used for business decision making. Its mission is to improve the quality, integrity and transparency of information used for decision-making in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner. Members will develop a voluntary, global disclosure framework designed to be the “gold standard” in business reporting. This framework will provide structure for the presentation of non-financial components of business reports—including key performance indicators—and facilitate greater integration of financial and non-financial components on an industry-by-industry basis. EBR will make it easier for stakeholders to understand the opportunities and risks a company faces and better reflect the complexities of modern business and the quality and variability of earnings and cash flows.
Learn More About EBR:
- Official EBR Web site—Learn specific facts; obtain press releases, announcements and news articles and review the EBRC framework.
- The Reporting Simplification Task Force has created a Disclosure Conceptual Framework to use as a guide in its study of opportunities for simplification. A copy of the Disclosure Conceptual Framework can be found here.
- In a speech delivered on the opening day of the 12th XBRL International Conference in Tokyo, the Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Christopher Cox, said the evolution of interactive data and leadership shown by the XBRL community had led global financial markets to the threshold of truly breathtaking changes.
The full text of the SEC Chairman's speech is available on: http://www.sec.gov/news/speech/spch110705cc.htm.