The Annual Reports Becoming Digital: An Initial Field Analysis of the NYSE Listed IFRS-Filers

It was a very long way from the initial development of the XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) standard in 1998 to the initial release of digital structured business reports based on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The US Securities and Exchange Commission's recognition of the IFRS taxonomy in March 2017 with the origin of a law issued in 2014 also introducing the "Interactive Rule" for all non-US companies, for the first time, the IFRS taxonomy of approximately 10,000 non-domestic ("non-domestic") company was applied. To the surprise of many market participants, the SEC's initial phased implementation, which included a two-year implementation, was replaced by a complete one-time implementation, including detailed tagging. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has begun to implement provisions contained in the new EU Transparency Directive of 2013. The aim is to develop a European electronic standard for financial reporting. With effect from 1 January 2020 all stock-listed companies have to prepare their Annual Financial Reports in the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF). The aim is to build on the IFRS taxonomy. This article gives a first overview of the results of the analysis of these electronic annual reports of the NYSE listed IFRS-filers. This will also provide relevant insights for the preparation for ESEF.