IFRS foundation releases guide to support regulators in digital implementations
The IFRS Foundation has released a new guide aimed at helping regulators integrate the IFRS digital taxonomies into their digital filing systems. The guide supports regulators in meeting the growing need for structured, machine-readable financial and sustainability data, offering greater transparency and comparability across borders. Covering both the IFRS Accounting Taxonomy and the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Taxonomy, the guide is designed to offer practical advice to regulators that require financial or sustainability disclosures to be prepared with structured data (read: XBRL) format.
The guide outlines best practices for ensuring digital financial reports are accurately tagged with IFRS digital taxonomy elements, making financial and sustainability data easily accessible in a structured, computer-readable format. By aligning reporting systems with these taxonomies, regulators can enhance the quality of disclosures, ensuring that they meet global standards while reducing the complexity of cross-border digital comparisons. Key considerations such as taxonomy extensions, regulatory-specific elements, and maintaining up-to-date versions are covered to help regulators build robust, consistent systems.
With recent XBRL International research showing that XBRL data collections for public companies around the world make up at least $98 trillion in market capitalisation, it’s safe to say that the IFRS digital taxonomies are already helping organisations transition towards more efficient, transparent reporting. For regulators, adopting these taxonomies and requiring XBRL for digital financial and sustainability supports the broader goal of improving market transparency and regulatory oversight, while also facilitating smoother compliance with international standards.
For investors, ensuring that digital financial reports are easily accessible, globally comparable, and assured by auditors provides greater confidence in the quality of the information available. This alignment supports better decision-making and can lower the cost of capital by enhancing foreign investment opportunities.
For everyone, guidance documents and continued support of digital reporting taxonomies – especially the newly created and, in many countries, soon to be mandated sustainability taxonomies, helps boost the quality and ease of digital financial reporting.
For further details, access the full guide on the IFRS Foundation’s website.
