OTTAWA, ON, Aug. 18, 2026 /CNW/ — Intouch Insight Ltd. (TSXV: INX) (OTCQX: INXSF) (“Intouch” or the “Company”), a provider of customer experience measurement solutions, today announced it will host a conference call and live webcast on August 27, 2026, at 10:30am Eastern Time to discuss the results of the second quarter 2026.

Conference Call Information

To participate in this event, register and log-in approximately 5 to 10 minutes before the beginning of the call.

Date: August 27, 2026
Time: 10:30 a.m. eastern time
Register for the live webcast and access on-demand recording: 
https://events.zoom.us/ev/ApEXp4MTIT3r7mdIyMnepiOj0JWWQZz-8QK_9Gn0AtLGAC-R-pYn~Anj41TOs5ON_y0VBbXslnvdVEyaq_Dsmqwga9gdn5FSs1jbXHdNT1B07Hw 

About Intouch Insight
Intouch Insight offers a complete portfolio of customer experience management (CEM) products and services that help global brands delight their customers, strengthen brand reputation and improve financial performance. Intouch helps clients collect and centralize data from multiple customer touch points, gives them actionable, real-time insights, and provides them with the tools to continuously improve customer experience. Founded in 1992, Intouch is trusted by over 300 of North America’s most-loved brands for their customer experience management, customer survey, mystery shopping, mobile forms, operational and compliance audits, geolocation data capture and event marketing automation solutions. For more information, visit intouchinsight.com.

Certain statements included in this news release including those related to the Company’s quarterly results, future products, opportunities and cost initiatives, strategies, and other statements that are predictive in nature that depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or that include words such as “expects”, “anticipates”, “intends”, “plans”, “believes”, “estimates”, or similar expressions, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward looking statements that are made of the date hereof, which by their nature are necessarily subject to risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the Company’s current views with respect to future events, and are based on information currently available to the Company and on hypotheses which it considers to be reasonable; however, management warns the reader that hypotheses relative to future events which are beyond the control of management could prove to be false, given that they are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Please refer to the risks set forth in the Company’s most recent annual MD&A and the Company’s continuous disclosure documents that can be found on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com. The Company does not intend, and disclaims any obligation, except as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Intouch Insight Ltd.

The company has emerged from stealth to help creators, studios, and rights holders protect and enforce intellectual property and likeness rights as generative AI rapidly advances.

NEW YORK, Aug. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Applied Research in Creative Output Synthesis (ARCOS) Labs, the parent company behind VN and Lightbar, today launched publicly and announced Nelson Chu as founder and CEO, unveiling its mission to protect creators, studios, and rights holders as AI rapidly transforms the creative economy.

ARCOS enters the market at a critical moment for the entertainment industry. As generative AI models become increasingly capable of reproducing characters, creative works, and human likenesses, rights holders face growing challenges in identifying, measuring, and enforcing the use of their intellectual property. The company was founded to provide the infrastructure creators and rights holders need to protect, enforce and monetize their work in an AI-driven world, while enabling the responsible use of AI throughout the creative production process.

Founded by repeat entrepreneur Nelson Chu, who previously raised more than $50 million to build Percent into a leading private credit platform and led the company to profitability, ARCOS represents his second company built around solving foundational infrastructure challenges. The company was inspired by a defining moment in March 2025, when AI-generated Studio Ghibli-style images flooded social media, highlighting how quickly generative AI could replicate distinctive creative works while leaving creators with little visibility or control. For Chu, it was the clearest example yet of a pattern that had become impossible to ignore. From viral moments that transformed iconic artistic styles into one-click filters to increasingly sophisticated image and video generation models, the industry repeatedly introduced new capabilities without developing meaningful infrastructure for consent, control, or enforcement on behalf of creators. Each new frontier model follows the same pattern: launch into a free-for-all IP infringement, then quietly walk back capabilities after screenshots go viral.

“AI has transformed how all of us live, but it has also created an entirely new set of problems for the people who create the stories, characters, and art that power our culture,” said Nelson Chu, founder and CEO of ARCOS Labs. “This is the Napster moment for human creativity. The technology is extraordinary and it isn’t going away, but the protections haven’t kept pace with the models. There is a small window to get this right before the rules governing AI and creativity are written for all of us. If human creativity is to be worth anything in the age of AI, it has to be worth protecting. That’s the principle on which we were founded, to stand on the side of creators and rights holders, move as fast as the technology itself, and build the infrastructure needed to protect and enforce the value of creative work in the AI era.”

The company’s growing suite of products is focused on safeguarding and advancing creative rights. Its flagship platform, VN, is powered by a proprietary fidelity recognition engine that enables studios, creators, and rights holders to protect and produce with confidence in the age of AI. The engine analyzes AI-generated content with statistical precision, helping identify how AI systems reproduce specific characters, intellectual property, and human likenesses. By measuring fidelity of outputs to original creative assets, VN provides the insights needed to safeguard rights while empowering creators to evaluate, refine, and develop AI-generated content that aligns with their creative vision. It also previously developed Lightbar, a community-powered micro-product that harnesses the power of the crowd to surface potential AI infringement, with thousands of submissions across the major studios, highlighting the scale of the problem and the need for greater transparency.

Before launching publicly, VN and Lightbar quietly established traction within the entertainment industry. VN has delivered extensively detailed forensic reports to studios and talent agencies, demonstrating how current AI models can accurately reproduce protected characters and human likenesses with statistical precision. The platform supports both protection and production use cases, enabling right holders not only to identify potential infringement, but also confidently incorporate AI into creative workflows. The team is now exploring trials with major studios and rights holders seeking solutions that keep pace with advancing AI technologies.

From inception, the team intentionally operated anonymously while its products gained attention from studios, agencies, and media outlets, believing the work should earn attention before the founder did. It is now stepping into the spotlight as it expands its efforts to help rights holders defend the value of human creativity in the AI era.

To learn more about ARCOS Labs, please visit: https://arcoslabs.co/ 

About ARCOS Labs
Applied Research in Creative Output Synthesis (ARCOS) Labs is a technology company focused on protecting and empowering human creativity in the era of artificial intelligence. The company develops products and infrastructure that enable creators, studios, talent agencies, and rights holders to identify, measure, enforce and responsibly create with intellectual property and likeness rights in AI-generated content. ARCOS’ suite of products , including VN and Lightbar, ensure that AI innovation progresses with meaningful protections for the people and organizations behind the world’s stories, characters, and cultural assets.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/arcos-labs-launches-to-protect-human-creativity-in-the-age-of-ai-unveils-nelson-chu-as-founder-and-ceo-302854118.html

SOURCE ARCOS Labs Co.

Represents Key Milestone as Company Executes Plan to Return to a Normal Reporting Cadence

SHANGHAI, Aug. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Lufax Holding Ltd (“Lufax” or the “Company”) (NYSE: LU and HKEX: 6623), a leading financial services enabler for small business owners in China, today announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026.

Second Quarter 2026 & First Half 2026 Financial Highlights

Total income was RMB6,227 million (US$918 million) in the second quarter of 2026, compared to RMB7,365 million in the same period of 2025.

Net loss was RMB82 million (US$12 million) in the second quarter of 2026, compared to net loss of RMB594 million in the same period of 2025.

Second Quarter 2026 Operational Highlights

Total outstanding balance of loans was RMB167.3 billion as of June 30, 2026, compared to RMB193.4 billion as of June 30, 2025, representing a decrease of 13.5%, among which the outstanding balance of consumer finance loans was RMB65.4 billion as of June 30, 2026, compared to RMB54.5 billion as of June 30, 2025, representing an increase of 19.9%.

Total new loans enabled were RMB51.1 billion in the second quarter of 2026, representing an increase of 4.6% compared to RMB48.9 billion in the same period of 2025, among which new consumer finance loans were RMB36.9 billion in the second quarter of 2026, compared to RMB28.9 billion in the same period of 2025, representing an increase of 27.6%.

Cumulative number of borrowers increased by 13.1% to approximately 31.4 million as of June 30, 2026 from approximately 27.8 million as of June 30, 2025.

As of June 30, 2026, including the consumer finance subsidiary, the Company bore risk on 93.2% of its outstanding balance, up from 83.7% as of June 30, 2025.

As of June 30, 2026, excluding the consumer finance subsidiary, the Company bore risk on 95.7% of its outstanding balance, up from 84.0% as of June 30, 2025.

For the second quarter of 2026, the Company’s retail credit enablement business take rate[1] based on loan balance was 13.8%, as compared to 12.5% for the second quarter of 2025.

C-M3 flow rate[2] for the total loans the Company had enabled, excluding the consumer finance subsidiary, was 1.0% in the second quarter of 2026, compared to 1.2% in the first quarter of 2026. Flow rates for the general unsecured loans and secured loans the Company had enabled were 1.0% and 0.9% respectively in the second quarter of 2026, as compared to 1.2% and 1.0% respectively in the first quarter of 2026.

Days past due (“DPD”) 30+ delinquency rate[3] for the total loans the Company had enabled, excluding the consumer finance subsidiary, was 5.8% as of June 30, 2026, as compared to 6.1% as of March 31, 2026. DPD 30+ delinquency rate for general unsecured loans was 6.1% as of June 30, 2026, as compared to 6.4% as of March 31, 2026. DPD 30+ delinquency rate for secured loans was 5.0% as of June 30, 2026, as compared to 5.4% as of March 31, 2026.

DPD 90+ delinquency rate[4] for total loans enabled, excluding the consumer finance subsidiary, was 3.7% as of June 30, 2026, as compared to 3.4% as of March 31, 2026. DPD 90+ delinquency rate for general unsecured loans was 3.9% as of June 30, 2026, as compared to 3.6% as of March 31, 2026. DPD 90+ delinquency rate for secured loans was 3.1% as of June 30, 2026, as compared to 3.0% as of March 31, 2026.

As of June 30, 2026, the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio[5] for consumer finance loans was 1.3% as compared to 1.4% as of March 31, 2026.

“Today’s results mark an important milestone for Lufax as we return to a normal, predictable reporting cadence,” said Mr. Xiang Ji, Chief Executive Officer of Lufax. “Over the past year, we completed the re-audit and audit of our financial statements from 2022 through 2025, engaged Deloitte Consulting Shanghai to strengthen our internal controls, and restructured our board so that independent non-executive directors now hold a majority. These initiatives to strengthen our governance and internal controls have allowed us to resume regular financial reporting to our shareholders and the broader investor community.

“The operating environment for small business owners remained difficult in the second quarter, with financing demand staying weak. In response, we are executing a strategy of prudent operations, anchored by our selective customer strategy, which is shifting our customer mix toward lower-risk borrowers through refined product design, targeted customer acquisition, and an upgraded risk management framework, and by AI-powered refined operations, which are deepening our use of artificial intelligence in customer segmentation and in strengthening relationships with existing customers. These efforts supported continued growth in our consumer finance business, with new consumer finance loan sales up 27.6% year over year, driving overall new loan sales up 4.6% year over year to RMB51.1 billion. Our asset quality also improved on a sequential basis, with our C-M3 flow rate declining to 1.0% and our consumer finance non-performing loan ratio improving to 1.3%, both down from the first quarter.

“Financially, we narrowed our net loss to RMB82 million in the second quarter, an 86.2% improvement from the same period last year, even as credit costs remained elevated amid a challenging environment for small business owners. We are encouraged by our continued operating efficiency gains, and under our refreshed leadership team, we remain focused on prudent, quality growth and on building long-term value for our shareholders.”

Second Quarter 2026 & First Half 2026 Financial Results

TOTAL INCOME

Total income was RMB6,227 million (US$918 million) in the second quarter of 2026, compared to RMB7,365 million in the same period of 2025, representing a decrease of 15.5%.

Technology platform-based income was RMB1,103 million (US$163 million) in the second quarter of 2026, compared to RMB1,399 million in the same period of 2025, representing a decrease of 21.2%. This decrease was primarily due to the decrease of retail credit and enablement service fees as a result of the decrease in loan balance.

Net interest income was RMB3,467 million (US$511 million) in the second quarter of 2026, compared to RMB3,199 million in the same period of 2025, representing an increase of 8.4%, mainly due to the expansion of our consumer finance & microloan lending business.

Guarantee income was RMB1,105 million (US$163 million) in the second quarter of 2026, compared to RMB1,389 million in the same period of 2025, representing a decrease of 20.4%, primarily attributable to a decrease in the average balance of off-balance sheet loans.

Other income was RMB269 million (US$40 million) in the second quarter of 2026, compared to other income of RMB358 million in the same period of 2025. This decrease was primarily due to a decrease in account management fees caused by decreased collections in the second quarter of 2026.

Investment income was RMB283 million (US$42 million) in the second quarter of 2026, compared to RMB1,021 million in the same period of 2025. This decrease was primarily attributable to the impact of changes in the valuations of certain assets.

TOTAL EXPENSES

Total expenses decreased by 12.7% to RMB6,197 million (US$913 million) in the second quarter of 2026 from RMB7,099 million in the same period of 2025. This decrease was mainly due to the decrease in sales and marketing expenses by 22.6% to RMB756 million (US$111 million) in the second quarter of 2026 from RMB977 million in the same period of 2025. Total expenses excluding credit impairment losses, finance costs and other (gains)/losses decreased by 27.5% to RMB1,974 million (US$291 million) in the second quarter of 2026 from RMB2,724 million in the same period of 2025.

Sales and marketing expenses decreased by 22.6% to RMB756 million (US$111 million) in the second quarter of 2026 from RMB977 million in the same period of 2025. The decrease was primarily due to the decreased new loan sales and outstanding balance of off-balance sheet loans, slightly offset by the compensation for the dismissal of low productivity direct sales employees.

General and administrative expenses decreased by 58.7% to RMB208 million (US$31 million) in the second quarter of 2026 from RMB504 million in the same period of 2025, this decrease was primarily due to our continuous personnel optimization and expense control measures.

Operation and servicing expenses decreased by 20.2% to RMB804 million (US$118 million) in the second quarter of 2026 from RMB1,008 million in the same period of 2025, primarily due to our expense control measures and the decrease in the loan balance.

Technology and analytics expenses decreased by 12.3% to RMB206 million (US$30 million) in the second quarter of 2026 from RMB235 million in the same period of 2025, primarily due to our improved efficiency and the expense control measures we adopted.

Credit impairment losses decreased by 3.2% to RMB4,141 million (US$610 million) in the second quarter of 2026 from RMB4,279 million in the same period of 2025, primarily due to the decreased provision of loans and receivables as a result of the decreased risk-bearing loan balance, partially offset by the increase in the actual losses.

Finance costs increased by 126.7% to RMB102 million (US$15 million) in the second quarter of 2026 from RMB45 million in the same period of 2025, mainly due to the combined effects of the increased loan interest expenses and decreased deposit interest income.

Other gains were RMB19 million (US$3 million) in the second quarter of 2026, compared to other losses of RMB51 million in the same period of 2025. The change was primarily due to the foreign exchange gains in 2026 and the one-time tax overdue penalty of a certain subsidiary we recognized in 2025.

NET LOSS

Net loss was RMB82 million (US$12 million) in the second quarter of 2026, compared to a net loss of RMB594 million in the same period of 2025, as a result of the aforementioned factors.

LOSS PER ADS

Basic and diluted loss per American Depositary Share (“ADS”) were both RMB0.24 (US$0.04) in the second quarter of 2026. Each ADS represents two ordinary shares.

BALANCE SHEET

The Company had RMB19,213 million (US$2,832 million) in cash at bank as of June 30, 2026, as compared to RMB22,086 million as of December 31, 2025. Net assets of the Company amounted to RMB81,448 million (US$12,004 million) as of June 30, 2026, as compared to RMB82,041 million as of December 31, 2025.

SEMI-ANNUAL DIVIDEND

In light of the net loss recorded for the six months ended June 30, 2026, the board of directors of the Company has determined that no semi-annual dividend shall be paid at this time.

Conference Call Information

The Company’s management will hold an earnings conference call at 9:00 P.M. U.S. Eastern Time on Tuesday, August 18, 2026 (9:00 A.M. Beijing Time on Wednesday, August 19, 2026) to discuss the financial results. For participants who wish to join the call, please complete online registration using the link provided below in advance of the conference call. Upon registering, each participant will receive a set of participant dial-in numbers, the event passcode, and a unique access PIN, which can be used to join the conference call.

Registration Link: https://dpregister.com/sreg/10211235/104a7ebdba9

A live and archived webcast of the conference call will also be available at the Company’s investor relations website at https://ir.lufaxholding.com.

The replay will be accessible through August 24, 2026, by dialing the following numbers:

About Lufax

Lufax is a leading financial services enabler for small business owners in China. The Company offers financing products designed principally to address the needs of small business owners and others. In doing so, the Company has established relationships with over 85 financial institutions in China as funding partners, many of which have worked with the Company for over three years.

Exchange Rate Information

This announcement contains translations of certain RMB amounts into U.S. dollars at a specified rate solely for the convenience of the reader. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from RMB to U.S. dollars are made at a rate of RMB6.7851 to US$1.00, the rate in effect as of June 30, 2026, as certified for customs purposes by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “future,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates” and similar statements. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Lufax’s beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Lufax has based these forward-looking statements largely on its current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends, which involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the Company’s control. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about Lufax’s goals and strategies; Lufax’s future business development, financial condition and results of operations; expected changes in Lufax’s income, expenses or expenditures; expected growth of the retail credit enablement; Lufax’s expectations regarding demand for, and market acceptance of, its services; Lufax’s expectations regarding its relationship with borrowers, platform investors, funding sources, product providers and other business partners; general economic and business conditions; and government policies and regulations relating to the industry Lufax operates in. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Lufax’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and Lufax does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

Investor Relations Contact

Lufax Holding Ltd
Email: Investor_Relations@lu.com

ICR, LLC
Robin Yang
Tel: +1 (646) 308-0546
Email: lufax.ir@icrinc.com 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lufax-reports-second-quarter-2026-financial-results-302854312.html

SOURCE Lufax Holding Ltd