The nonprofit Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) recently announced that its microfinance taxonomy has been officially acknowledged by XBRL International, the coordinating body for XBRL activities and standards. XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is an open-source technology that is widely used in Europe and has been adopted by major players elsewhere, such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Bank of Japan and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. MIX’s microfinance taxonomy is based on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) with additional features specific to microfinance. Scott Gaul, manager of product development at MIX, argues that, “Using IFRS as the basis of the taxonomy allows for a direct link to an accounting standard in use in over 100 countries worldwide and closer alignment of microfinance with mainstream markets,” and that XBRL will “encourage richer data on microfinance, increasing transparency without increasing the reporting burden on MFIs.”

Sources and resources:

Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) press release
http://www.themix.org/press-release/microfinance-taxonomy-developed-mix-receives-official-acknowledgement-xbrl-internation

Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX)
http://www.themix.org/

XBRL International
http://www.xbrl.org/