Christopher Cox nailed his sales pitch to the ICI's membership this morning. Cox, the Chairman of the SEC, put on his sales hat to plug the Commission's new XBRL standards for regulatory filings. During his prepared remarks, Cox avoided any reference to rule or fund oversight matters. He left the dais without taking questions from the gathered fund executives.

Like any good sales pro, Cox came prepared with an interactive power point presentation. Pretending to be a potential investor looking at fund expenses ratios, he browsed through the current SEC Web site, called up an N-1A -- a form that he jokingly noted every shareholder will know the name of -- and then cut and pasted the fund's expense information into a new spreadsheet. Shareholders now have to repeat that process for each fund, he noted.

Christopher Cox Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman

Cox then unveiled an XBRL demo of the new SEC site, and showed how the same information can be called up with one click. He added that the final version of the site is will debut "very soon."

Cox attempted to seal the deal by telling attendees that their lives will be simpler if they adopt the new XBRL standards.

"We're working now to see to it that every mutual fund uses interactive data when reporting to the SEC," he said.

He also slammed the current filing system.

"You know how that works, it's not a lot of fun. Little wonder, then, that not too many people try this at home," he quipped.  

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