What is the difference between XBRL and FpML, Fix, FinXML, OFX, XML/EDI? Are all of these efforts needed?

All of these identified efforts are transaction-oriented specifications for specific purposes – except for XBRL. XBRL is reporting-oriented. All of these efforts are needed since they all serve different purposes. As these transaction-oriented specifications grow and develop, the need for business reporting that captures aggregate transactions becomes even more important. As a result, XBRL becomes more critical to organizations using XML technology.