The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today expanded its voluntary interactive data program to include mutual funds.

The SEC published final rule amendments to enable mutual funds to submit risk/return summary information from their prospectuses using interactive data under the commission’s voluntary program. The risk/return summary at the front of every mutual fund prospectus includes information about a fund’s investment objectives and strategies, risks, costs, and historical performance. The commission voted unanimously to adopt the rule amendments in June.

The submission of tagged risk/return summary information will be supplemental and will not replace the required official versions of the information. Any mutual fund submitting tagged risk/return summary information will be required to include this information as an amendment to the registration form for mutual funds. Volunteers can begin submitting tagged risk/return summary information on August 20.

Data tagging uses standard definitions (or data tags) to translate text-based information into data that is “interactive” and can be retrieved, searched, and analyzed through automated means. Tagged information can help investors, analysts, and other users to access precisely the information that they are interested in analyzing from detailed text-based disclosure documents.