Chairman Hans Hoogervost speech on XBRL

On 25 April 2012, Chairman Hoogervost gave a speech on XBRL during the IFRS Taxonomy Annual Convention held in London.

In his speech, the chairman gave a high level overview of the potential benefits of XBRL. He notes that XBRL can potentially supplement financial statements to give users an extract of only the information they need, eliminate re-keying of financial information, and allow users a choice of which language to use.

Chairman Hoogervost also noted that XBRL should not define the Board's standard-setting activities and that additional work needs to be done before XBRL is more widely used. The chairman outlines three XBRL priorities, which will help it gain wider acceptance:

1. Ensure IFRS Taxonomy is of the highest quality.

2. Be more sensitive to XBRL requirements throughout the lifecycle of the board's standard-setting activities.

3. Work with members of the XBRL community to improve the technology.