The Securities and Exchange Commission announced a series of roundtables that will be held throughout the year, with a focus on speeding the implementation of new Internet tools to help provide investors and analysts with better financial information about companies and funds.
The roundtables will review the experiences from the first year of the agency's pilot program to use interactive data for company filings with the SEC. Interactive data permits Internet users to search for and use individual items of information from financial reports, such as net income, executive compensation, or mutual fund expenses. About a dozen companies participated in the voluntary program.
Topics up for discussion include:
- What investors and analysts are looking for in the new world of interactive data;
- How to accelerate the use of new software that permits the dissemination of interactive financial data; and,
- How to best design the SEC's requirements for company disclosures to take maximum advantage of the potential of interactive data.
Representatives from investors, issuers, auditors, analysts, technology professionals, regulators and others will be invited to the roundtable discussions.The first roundtable in the series will be held the morning of June 12 at the SEC's Washington headquarters. Other discussions will be held in the summer and fall.
The SEC welcomes any feedback on the use of interactive data from the public. More information on submitting comments is available at www.sec.gov.
