Jaime Caruana: Reflections on financial information from the standpoint of a banking supervisor Speech by Mr Jaime Caruana, Governor of the Bank of Spain, at the 13th XBRL International Conference, Madrid, 16 May 2006. *  *  *  Introduction Good afternoon. I would like to begin by thanking the organisers of this 13th XBRL International Conference for their kind invitation to participate. I am delighted to have this opportunity to close today’s session by sharing with you some reflections on financial information from the standpoint of a banking supervisor. And it is, of course, a special pleasure for me to be able to address this audience in my home country. I guess that, looking from the outside, it might seem somewhat strange that banking supervisors and other regulators are taking such an active interest in a computer language. But I think that all of us here are very well aware of the role that tools such as XBRL can play in promoting the effective and efficient flow of financial information, and it is on this wider objective that I want to focus my intervention today. I will begin with a brief introduction to recall the important role that information plays in financial markets from a macroeconomic perspective.
While national supervisory authorities are free to decide on the technical transmission specifications to implement the new reporting frameworks, CEBS considers that XBRL can be a helpful tool in constructing a harmonised European reporting mechanism, and is therefore developing an XBRL platform which will be available free of charge to national authorities and supervised institutions. XBRL taxonomies are being developed for both frameworks. Of course, we all recognise that it is not cheap to develop these technologies. But I do believe that the benefits will greatly outweigh the costs in the medium to longer term, and I would encourage every effort to be made to harness those benefits. Conclusions Let me finalise my intervention by briefly recapitulating the five elements that I believe are important for progress: First, convergence of the underlying regulation that affects financial institutions and markets. Second, convergence of reporting requirements on the basis of this more harmonised regulation. Third, increased use of internal information, generated for business purposes, for external reporting purposes. Fourth, increased feedback and information to the reporting institutions. And finally, the use of new technologies. I think the examples I have given from the banking perspective show that we are already making some good progress, although there is of course more that could, and should, be done. In closing, I would like to thank you for your attention and wish you a productive and enjoyable time here in Madrid. BIS Review 47/2006  5