CMA to launch new disclosure platform

Muscat: A project for implementing the XBRL disclosure platform for the reporting of financial and non-financial information by all issuers listed on the Muscat Security Market (MSM) and other companies operating under any license from the Capital Market Authority (CMA) has been commissioned.
XBRL, or eXtensible Business Reporting Language, is an XML standard for tagging business and financial reports to increase the transparency and accessibility of business information by using a uniform format.
The project has been commissioned by CMA in cooperation with the Muscat Security.
XBRL enables the data to be captured, stored and disseminated in machine-readable form. The biggest value to the investor community would be brought about by a rich, analytic portal that will be built on the XBRL data which will enable the analysts and investors to take deep dives into the digitalised data and also stay updated on latest developments.
Users would be able to perform various analysis on the data including comparisons and ratio analyses across companies, sector or any other category and generate reports to help them in their investment decisions decision making.
This would be another first in the history of CMA after the recent successful launch of a locally developed platform in record time for holding virtual General Meetings and E-voting that enabled companies to hold virtual AGM without a physical gathering of shareholders.
CMA had also introduced an automated book building process that ensured the price discovery mechanism through online and transparent bidding for the benefit of investors by which a fair IPO price is determined by the investors themselves.
“We are continuously working to achieve the objective of bringing in more transparency and efficiency by adopting automation and futuristic tools that would benefit and protect the investors, regulated entities and the overall economy in line with Vision 2040 of the Sultanate of Oman,” stated Sheikh Abdullah bin Salim Al Salmi, Executive President of the CMA.
“The XBRL implementation in Oman will be based on the latest International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) taxonomy and would be seamlessly integrated with the disclosure filing system of MSM. The filing would be available both in Arabic and English. CMA intends is to provide an easy but powerful functionality to the investors and the other concerned, to carry out their own or bespoke financial analysis on the portal itself and generate attractive reports with graphics and tables etc," stated Mohamed Said Al Abri, Vice President Capital Market Sector.
"Such analytic facilities are critical for further raising the level of effective governance and would be a first in the GCC. Fintech companies, app developers and creative analysts would also be invited to create their analytic products by integrating with the APIs offered by the XBRL portal. Even issuer companies would be able to create investor relation widgets on their websites by linking to the XBRL portal to and offer various feeds, information and analytics,” he added.
CMA would issue further communications in the matter in due course and will provide all necessary guidance and support to the reporting entities before the XBRL filing is made mandatory, added Al Abri.