The U.S. mutual fund affiliate of a global financial services conglomerate has become the first investment company to volunteer to file reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission by eXtensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL. On March 29 the SEC announced that 17 corporations had agreed to participate in a new 2006 version of the agency's XBRL pilot program and that one of them is Old Mutual Fund Capital, a U.S. affiliate of Old Mutual. The new pilot program rewards participants with expedited reviews of their registration statements and annual reports.

The Investment Company Institute announced March 20 that it was developing a broader XBRL taxonomy for mutual fund disclosure. The Commission plans a series of roundtables on the uses of XBRL, kicking off with one in June on how the technology works for investors and analysts.