Today, the Securities Exchange Commission announced enhancements to its Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (EDGAR) database.

EDGAR will utilize Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to collect financial statement data in real time, where submissions are “updated with a typical processing delay of less than a second.”  This will allow for quicker and more user-friendly access of corporate disclosures.  The SEC believes that these APIs will be useful for web developers to create online applications that directly serve investors.

See the press release here.