Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Commission wants some of the top listed companies in the US to start making financial disclosures through an interactive data system by early next year.

The SEC board today voted unanimously to formally propose using a new technology to get important information to investors faster, more reliably, and at a lower cost.

Under the proposal, adopted 3-0 by the SEC, most of the remaining listed companies would be required to begin using the so-called XBRL, or extensible business reporting language, in their regulatory filings in 2010 and 2011.

The use of data-tagging with XBRL language will replace the agency's Edgar online reporting system, in place since the 1980s, which stores paper regulatory filings in electronic form.

''At the center of the SEC proposal is the `interactive data' - computer `tags' similar in function to bar codes used to identify groceries and shipped packages. The interactive data tags uniquely identify individual items in a company's financial statement so they can be easily searched on the internet, downloaded into spreadsheets, reorganised in databases, and put to any number of other comparative and analytical uses by investors, analysts, and journalists,'' SEC said in a release.

"This is all about bringing investors better, faster, more meaningful information about the companies they own," said SEC chairman Christopher Cox. "It would transform financial disclosure from a 1930s form-based system to a truly 21st century model that taps the power of technology for the benefit of investors," he added.

''These steps will represent real progress, both for SEC filers and investors. All of the technology is coming together to make electronic filing a true analytical tool. The staff has gathered valuable experience during the almost three years that public companies have been submitting interactive data in our voluntary filer program. This helps give us a strong foundation for moving forward," said John White, director of the SEC's corporate finance division.

"Accounting is the business language of the world, and interactive data will become an easy and reliable technology to improve that language worldwide,  just like many other tools available on the internet. The SEC's Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting has been studying the benefits of interactive data and has proposed that the commission proceed with a mandatory adoption schedule. Over the long term, preparers are expected to benefit through better internal management information and applications, and investors will benefit with improved analytical methods to analyse financial information," Conrad Hewitt, SEC's chief accountant, said.

"Information - meaningful, accurate, timely, easy-to-use financial reporting - always has been the driver of commerce and markets. This proposal provides the critical regulatory framework by which interactive data will make financial reporting more easily and quickly available, and help transform the relationship between filer and investor," said David M Blaszkowsky, director of the SEC's Office of Interactive Disclosure.

Since 2005, companies have voluntarily submitted to the SEC financial information in interactive data format. The rules proposed today would require companies to provide this information according to a phase-in schedule.

Companies using international financial reporting standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board would provide this disclosure for fiscal periods ending in late 2010. The disclosure would be provided as additional exhibits to annual and quarterly reports and registration statements. Companies also would be required to post this information on their websites.

The required tagged disclosures would include companies' primary financial statements, notes, and financial statement schedules. Initially, companies would tag notes and schedules as blocks of text, and a year later, they would provide tags for the details within the notes and schedules, SEC said.