THE BRUSSELS XBRL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

By Gerald Trites, FCA

The 22^nd XBRL International Conference took place on May 17 – 19 at the Sheraton Brussels. The theme was “Sharing Economic Information in a Global World: The XBRL Contribution”.

There were 342 attendees from 40 countries. The conference featured the impressive savings that governments and companies are experiencing from the use of XBRL. Typical was this comment from Mr. Didier J.L. Reynders, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance of Belgium:

“The overall objective of XBRL is to improve government internal functioning, but also reduce the administrative burden of companies in Belgium reporting to government agencies,” said Mr. Didier Reynders. In 2010, the use of XBRL alone at the National Bank of Belgium has resulted in a 35% reduction in filing fees for small to medium size enterprises and an estimated annual administrative burden reduction estimated at €17.3 million. In addition, the use of XBRL has reduced the cost of annual maintenance at the regulatory level to a third of its original cost. XBRL is a first step in harmonizing data exchange with other regulators in Belgium, Europe and world to promote better transparency, accountability and risk management.”

Numerous other countries reported similar results.

The Canadian Government is seeking ways to rationalize and reduce its spending to achieve budgetary goals. It has launched the Red Tape Commission to help in achieving this end, and XBRL Canada has made a submission pointing to the use of XBRL as a means to realize significant savings in government spending as well as savings in the hands of the companies who need to file information with government departments and agencies. The proceedings of the Brussels International Conference can provide considerable insight into the savings being realized by other countries. Most presentations are available at http://www.youtube.com/user/XBRLStandards and at http://conference.xbrl.org.