QSE Qatar Stock Exchange (‘QSE’) today, delivers on another element of its ongoing transparency and disclosure initiatives with the announcement of its roll-out and first training sessions for an XBRL-based reporting system to be called its Q-Disclosure Platform.
Qatar, through an initiative supported jointly by QSE and Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA), is preparing to implement an XBRL-based reporting and disclosure system covering both financial statements (annual, semi-annual and quarterly) and non-financial disclosures (including but not limited to corporate announcements, corporate actions and other regulatory announcements).
XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is the result of a move towards a single global electronic financial reporting standard allowing more efficient retrieval and analysis of financial information. The standard was developed by an international non-profit consortium of over 650 major companies, and government agencies and adopted by accounting standards bodies, regulators, and banks around the world.
Rashid Al Mansoori, CEO of QSE commented “XBRL is either in mandated or in voluntarily use in an increasing number of countries including Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Korea, Spain, Sweden, Singapore, the United Kingdom, India, Brazil, Japan and the United States. QSE intends that over time our listed companies will meet the growing need for investor-friendly data that is machine-readable to ensure our market provides information on an equivalent basis to leading global exchanges.”
In line with the XBRL adoption, QSE has developed an integrated solution within its Q-Disclosure Platform that standardizes the information provided in face financial statements and also non-financial disclosures.
The system will be a web-based solution, available in Arabic and English, fully aligned with IFRS and designed with sector specific taxonomy for Banks & Financials, Insurance (Commercial and Islamic), Real Estate and Other (to cover Consumer, Industrials, Telecoms and Transportation).
Abdul Aziz Al Emadi, Listing Director at QSE added “We have completed the development work and are now in the early stages of the ‘testing’ and ‘pilot’ phases, which we expect to run through until July 2020. We have begun the training and it is envisaged UAT will take place with listed companies and auditors in batches between November 2019 and June 2020. In line with roll-out phases around the world, to ensure all stakeholders are ready to use the Q-Disclosure Platform and in the meantime ensure ongoing market-integrity we expect the Q-Disclosure Platform will not become mandatory for all listed companies until Q3 2020.
Rashid Al Mansoori concluded “We believe adoption by listed companies will improve the transparency and utility of companies’ financial information whilst investors will have access to more reliable information in a form that is beneficial to the analysis, analytical coverage and understanding of our market. We look forward to developing the Q-Disclosure Platform further through more detailed engagement with all stakeholders in the coming months.”
