The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has announced plans for a new disclosure system that will eventually replace its EDGAR database.

SEC chairman Christopher Cox unveiled the new system called IDEA, short for Interactive Data Electronic Applications, today. “Based on a completely new architecture being built from the ground up, it will at first supplement and then eventually replace the EDGAR system,” the SEC said in a release. It promises that the new system will give investors far faster and easier access to key financial information about public companies and mutual funds.

The commission said that the decision to replace EDGAR marks the SEC’s transition from collecting forms and documents to making the information itself freely available to investors to give them better and more up-to-date financial disclosure in a form they can readily use.

“IDEA will ensure that the SEC continues to stay ahead of the needs of investors,” stated Cox. “This new SEC resource powered by interactive data will give investors far faster, more accurate, and more meaningful information about the companies and mutual funds they own. IDEA’s launch represents a fundamental change in the way the SEC collects and publishes company and fund information — and in the way that investors will be able to use it.”