The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is asking for the software industry to help it assess the potential for interactive financial disclosure.

The SEC released a Request for Information concerning interactive financial data. The commission said that interactive data holds the promise of transforming the static, text-only documents companies file with the SEC into dynamic financial reports that can be quickly and easily accessed and analyzed.

The RFI seeks information from the software industry to assist the commission’s staff in identifying ways to receive, store, view, and analyze interactive financial data. Since February, the commission has been testing financial data tagging technology through a voluntary program that allows registrants to file periodic and investment company reports using interactive data.

Today’s RFI solicits further information and ideas from the technology marketplace on how best to develop tools that will make interactive financial data a reality. Although the commission staff implemented a set of initial tools in conjunction with the launch of the voluntary program, further refinements are needed to permit the SEC, preparers, and users of interactive data to achieve its full benefits, it reports. Better software tools may also help accelerate the broader adoption of a new standard among issuers and investors, it adds.

SEC chairman Christopher Cox said, “The use of interactive data, if widely adopted, may dramatically enhance the usefulness of reported financial information. Consumers of the data may be able to use it more easily and effectively. Potentially, computer-tagged data could provide real-time operational information for business managers. And its instant availability would dramatically streamline and accelerate the collection and reporting of that same financial information to the commission and the public.”

By using computer codes to “tag” different kinds of data in financial reports, the information companies file with the commission can be made much easier to find and analyze. For example, specific items in a financial statement, such as net income or gross sales, are given computer-readable labels. At the same time, the task of preparing the reports can be automated for the companies who file them.

The data can also be more readily used to compare companies’ financial performance, both for investors who are seeking attractive investment opportunities, and for regulators looking for fraud.