Adding traceability and trust to Interactive Data using XBRL

Presenter: Ray Nightingale, Policy Director, GlobalTrustCenter

The words transparency and assurance mean different things to people depending on their backgrounds and experiences.

There can now be little doubt of the value of interactive data, based on XBRL, within the financial reporting environment. Undoubtedly, XBRL has the potential to deliver a significant degree of transparency and assurance to the reported information.

At the Global Trust Center, we are working toward enabling trust in the digital world, which, naturally, includes all aspects of financial reporting.

From our perspective, we view transparency as being able to prove the origin of the reported information from source, through filing, via third party processors to the end users. This requires the clear identification of the individual, within a specific role in an organisation, at every stage of the information processing.  With the individual come the agreed accountabilities, responsibilities and traceability.

Our view of assurance is to provide the assurance of the integrity of the reported information, the underlying processes and individuals throughout the reporting, and subsequent, lifecycles. This level of assurance is achieved by creating robust and secure audit trails at each stage.

When combined, these activities enable trust around the reported information. Based on this high level of trust it is possible to establish the provenance of the information. The established provenance is then used to support enforcement activities and protect the copyright and reputation of the reporting company.