Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox has announced a task force to make financial reporting easier for investors to understand.

The committee, to be headed up by Robert C. Pozen, chairman of MFS Investment Management , will look at a range of issues from clarifying accounting standards, to whether technology like XBRL and hyperlinks can make it easier for investors.

It's also worth noting that Pozen is a member of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation , a group of bankers, bosses, academics and investors otherwise known as the Paulson Committee, headed by Hal Scott, a Harvard Law School professor, which several months ago recommended , among other things, winding back the scope of Sarbanes-Oxley, reducing criminal enforcement against companies and capping the liability of audit firms.

Not surprisingly, Barbara roper, director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America, has told the Washington Post that these sorts of changes "can be used to erode investor protections rather than to strengthen them."

Streamlining financial reporting and making it easier to understand is to be commended. But not if it will cost of investors.