Governments around the world have found a high-tech ally in their fight against tax cheats, money-launderers, corporate crooks, and perhaps the most pernicious of all bureaucratic enemies, paperwork.

The technology, a computer language developed by accountants, turns financial information into the equivalent of a bar code, allowing software to scan and comprehend information that would otherwise be left for armies of analysts to retype and sort out.

Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), as it is called, is gaining a critical following inside the halls of government.

Officials from Brussels to Washington have begun encouraging and requiring financial statements to be prepared in XBRL, to counter the cool reception so far in the business community.

"It's the killer technology," said Michael Bartell, the chief information officer of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the US banking regulator. "We are drowning in data. We're buying storage faster than we can cut the purchase orders."

The technology affixes digital "tags" to virtually every kind of financial information, making it possible for software to spot suspicious or erroneous information and flag reports for more thorough review.

While all data can be stored electronically, XBRL provides a standard structure that can be run through many types of analytical software.

In October, after a year's delay, the FDIC will become the first federal agency to require XBRL reporting.

This move marks a change that could cut weeks from the task of reviewing 9,000 quarterly bank reports and sharing them with the investing public.

A similar, but voluntary, programme is underway at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Internal Revenue Service, the US tax authority, is exploring XBRL as a way to speed the hugely time-consuming task of auditing businesses.

The EU is spending €1 million to promote the technology across member states.

Markets in Asia are also pressing forward with XBRL, hoping the technology can increase financial transparency in their markets.

Business and investors have yet to embrace the technology, frustrating agencies such as the SEC, whose voluntary XBRL programme has been largely ignored.

"What we have yet to observe is an embracing of the standard by preparers, analysts and investors," said Peter Derby, the SEC's managing executive for operations.