ICI Develops New Mutual Fund Interactive Data Taxonomy

by Philip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

08 January 2007

The Investment Company Institute (ICI) last Thursday released for public review the draft taxonomy that it has developed for tagging the data in the risk/return summary that is at the front of every mutual fund prospectus.

The risk/return summary contains information that is important to an investment decision, including investment objectives and strategies, costs, risks, and historical performance information.

The Institute has developed an XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) taxonomy that can be used to "tag" data in the risk/return summary that is included in the front of every mutual fund prospectus.

The risk/return summary includes the information of most importance to investors - the fund's investment objectives, principal investment strategies, principal risks, and historical fund performance, along with the standardized fund fee table.

A 45-day public review period began following its publication on the ICI website.

Commenting on the draft taxonomy, Christopher Cox, Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced that:

"I applaud the ICI and its President, Paul Schott Stevens, for the leadership role they have played in bringing the potential of interactive data closer to reality for mutual fund customers. Completing the taxonomy for the mutual fund risk/return summary means that funds can now make this information available to investors in far more useful ways."

"Interactive data will transform static figures into dynamic databases that can readily be searched, analyzed, and compared. There is no more important place for application of this tool than mutual funds, where millions of Americans engage in comparison shopping every day. Retail investors rely on mutual funds to finance their retirement, their education, their health care and almost every other need. Today's announcement means they will soon be armed with better, more accessible information on which to base their investment decisions. The SEC will act quickly to facilitate the use of the new taxonomy in Commission filings."

Andrew Donohue, the SEC's Director of the Division of Investment Management, added:

"The ICI's release of the draft taxonomy is a welcome development, offering the potential for tagging of prospectus information that is important to mutual fund investment decisions. We encourage investors, members of the mutual fund industry, and other interested parties to provide their comments to the ICI during the 45-day public review period in order to assist the ICI in its efforts to create a technological tool that has the potential to enhance greatly the way in which information is provided to mutual fund investors."

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