Following in footsteps of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Canadian Securities Administrators recently announced the establishment of a program to allow reporting issuers to voluntarily file their financial statements in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (“XBRL”) format.  XBRL is a business language that can be used to share financial information and to analyze data.  The language assigns “tags” to items of data rather than treating financial information in a text format.  These tags (such as “revenue”) allow systems to process the information to which the tag relates automatically by clicking on the tag.  XBRL can be used, by issuers, for financial data collection and reporting purposes and, by investors and other users, to ease and speed-up the process of financial information analysis and comparison.

The members of the Canadian Securities Administrators announced that reporting issuers that choose to file their financial statements in XBRL format on a voluntary basis must, for the time being, continue to file their official financial statements in regular text format.

The voluntary program was launched to help the Canadian marketplace gain practical knowledge and experience in preparing, filing and using XBRL information and to assist the Canadian Securities Administrators in assessing the usefulness of XBRL as they consider whether to make XBRL filing mandatory for all reporting issuers.

The foregoing is a summary of a recent development in law. If you would like additional information about this topic or any aspect of Canadian securities law, please contact Maryse Bertrand (514-841-6460), Neil Kravitz (514-841-6522) or Sébastien Roy (514-841-6493) in the Montréal office or Patricia Olasker (416-367-5551) or Mindy Gilbert (416-367-6907)  in our Toronto office.

Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, with over 235 lawyers, practices nationally and internationally from offices in Toronto, Montréal, New York and an affiliate in Paris and is consistently at the heart of the largest and most complex commercial and financial matters on behalf of its North American and overseas clients.

The information and comments herein are for the general information of the reader and are not intended as advice or opinions to be relied upon in relation to any particular circumstance. For particular applications of the law to specific situations, the reader should seek professional advice.