Investors will be able to access financial disclosures from all U.S. public companies and mutual funds in an interactive format within two years, as regulators replace a 1980s-vintage, text-based reporting system with an Internet-based platform.

The new system, called Interactive details Electronic Applications, or view, was introduced at a news conference Tuesday by Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox.

concept is “a fundamental change in the way the SEC manages, collects and distributes information” that invent it more

accessible and dependable for investors, Cox said.

With the change, all the details in companies’ SEC filings will be searchable on the Net. Investors will be able to immediately collate data from thousands of companies, creating reports and analyses “on the fly, in any way they choose,” the SEC said.

Around 90 companies have voluntarily been filing their disclosures to the SEC using the so-called XBRL, or extensible business reporting language, that provides […]

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