U.S. financial regulators are proposing to switch required filings for publicly traded companies from quarterly reporting to semiannual.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday released its amended proposal for optional semiannual reporting for companies on Wall Street. SEC officials say the change in frequency of reporting won’t impact the type of information disclosed publicly. Companies will be expected to file a new form called Form 10-S in lieu of the traditional Form 10-Q if they choose to report twice a year.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins says this proposal will allow for more freedom between companies and investors.

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“The rigidity of the SEC’s rules has prevented companies and their investors from determining for themselves the interim reporting frequency that best serves their business needs and investors,” Atkins said in a statement. “Today’s proposed amendments, if ultimately adopted, would provide companies with increased regulatory flexibility in this regard.”

However, some investors are skeptical about how this benefits anyone other than the companies.

Gary Kaltbaum, president of Kaltbaum Capital Management and a FOX Business contributor, said this will pave the way for less clarity for investors to make decisions on Wall Street.

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“The No. 1 reason why stocks do well is because of their earnings reports,” Kaltbaum said. “And now that you’re going to separate it by six months, that’s tough going for investors to try and figure out what’s going on with a company when you’re not going to hear from them in six months.”

The SEC attempted to ease the concerns of investors, saying corporations can still hold quarterly earnings calls even if they choose semiannual reporting. The Wall Street regulator says they’re not mutually exclusive, but critics are skeptical that companies would bother with quarterly earnings calls since they don’t have to make public disclosures as frequently.

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Under the current proposal, companies will be given the opportunity to opt-in for semiannual reporting at the start of every fiscal year. If companies don’t like the new reporting practices, then they can opt back into quarterly reporting the following fiscal year.

The SEC says the public comment period will be open for the next 60 days after publishing the proposal in the Federal Register.

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Fast moving industries are make it or break it. Worse, they are constantly shifting. Who the biggest player is in the market can change from one day to the next.

A new tech, a new tool, a new game, all of this can shake up who is successful and who is not. More importantly for industries that are regulated, like the gaming industry, new regulations can immediately drop the biggest fish off the map, while those who put player satisfaction and safety at the forefront rise to the top.

Longevity is difficult to maintain in a fast-moving industry, especially a digital industry where updates can roll out instantly. You don’t need to restructure your supply chain or wait for a product or service to reach your customers. The only problem with this instant delivery is that your competitors also have access to that same level of quick-fire delivery.

That’s why longevity is all about standing out and delivering on a specific experience again and again:

The Importance of Theme and Niche in a Fast-Moving Market

Digital industries shift fast, and not only on the platforms themselves. Sometimes the biggest challenge is both how many competitors there are, and also how many newcomers are arriving on the scene. This is a challenge both for the existing providers and the newcomers themselves.

That’s why one of the top ways that platforms are working to maintain the long-term interest of their players is by building their platform around a visual niche. This is particularly important in industries like iGaming, where platforms can look nearly identical from one provider to the next.

In this sort of environment, brands like River Belle, which have been built around a specific visual niche (in this case, a luxury vintage steamer ship), are leading the way. Not only have they built a memorable, striking, and engaging niche, but they have also followed it up by putting their live casino game experiences at the forefront.

New Games, New Experiences

Digital platforms have the benefit of being able to see the numbers in detail. They know exactly where their audience is spending their time, what games they’re playing, for how long, and what’s most popular.

That’s why they can easily keep the top playing games, restructure those that have potential, and still release new games and variations that keep players coming back. More importantly, those analytics can actually be used to predict future game success by understanding current appetites. This approach keeps the platform fresh while also avoiding the alienation that can come from taking down a top-performing game by mistake.

Safety, Safety, Safety

When there are so many competitors and the industry moves fast, being reliable is the easiest way for platforms to ensure their longevity. Using the latest security features to both reduce friction in the sign-up and deposit process, while also delivering secure and timely withdrawals, boosts trust and the overall experience. When competitors are screaming at the top of their lungs for attention, the options may seem endless, but customers will still ultimately go where they know they are safe. Being scammed and fooled is every digital customer’s top fear, so providing that safety and assurance is one of the last top ways digital platforms are maintaining their long-term success.

Restaurant owners have spent years refining the customer journey through booking tools, POS platforms, kitchen display systems, loyalty apps and payment technology.

Yet many hospitality businesses are now looking beyond the dining room for inspiration, and a practical PMS system guide for hotels can be surprisingly useful for understanding how accommodation-led businesses connect reservations, payments, guest profiles, and daily operations into a clearer commercial picture.

That matters because restaurants are no longer judged only on food and service. Guests expect accuracy, speed, personalisation and consistency across every touchpoint. The same customer who books a boutique hotel online also expects a restaurant to remember dietary preferences, process payments smoothly and handle last-minute changes without confusion.

Why Restaurant Operators Should Care About PMS Thinking

A Property Management System, or PMS, is traditionally associated with hotels. It helps manage room bookings, guest records, housekeeping, billing and availability. At first glance, that may seem far removed from a restaurant POS system. But the underlying business logic is very familiar.

Both restaurants and hotels depend on:

• Accurate availability
• Fast service delivery
• Clean customer data
• Efficient staff workflows
• Clear reporting
• Reliable payment handling

For restaurant owners, the lesson is not that they need to run hotel software. It is that the best hospitality systems are built around the full guest journey rather than isolated transactions.

A modern PMS system in a hotel environment gives managers a joined-up view of guests, bookings, charges, and service requirements. Restaurants can apply the same principle by connecting table reservations, POS data, stock usage, marketing preferences and customer history.

The Shift from Transactional Systems to Guest-Centred Operations

Many restaurants still think of software in separate boxes. The POS handles sales. The booking platform manages reservations. The stock system monitors ingredients. The loyalty tool sends offers. Each product may work well on its own, but the business can still feel fragmented.

Hotels faced this problem years ago. A guest might book online, request an early check-in, order room service, visit the bar and pay at reception. Without connected systems, the experience becomes clumsy for both staff and guests.

Restaurants face similar challenges when:

• A regular guest books online but is not recognised by the front-of-house staff
• A POS system records spend but does not inform marketing
• A kitchen runs out of an item that is still available on digital menus
• A private dining enquiry is managed outside normal reporting
• A loyalty reward is missed because customer data is incomplete

The value of PMS-style thinking is that it encourages operators to view software as an operational ecosystem rather than a collection of tools.

Lessons from Hotels That Restaurants Can Apply

1. Treat customer data as an operational asset

Hotels depend on guest profiles. Preferences, previous stays, spending patterns and special requests all influence service quality. Restaurants can benefit from the same mindset.

A guest who regularly orders vegetarian dishes, prefers a quiet table, or books for business lunches is giving the business useful information. When handled responsibly, this data can improve service without feeling intrusive.

The goal is not to over-personalise. It is to help staff make better decisions.

2. Make availability visible and accurate

Hotel teams live and die by availability. Rooms cannot be sold twice, and poor availability management damages revenue. Restaurants deal with the same issue through table capacity, kitchen load, staff coverage and event space.

The discipline used in PMS systems for small hotels can be useful here. Smaller hotels often need lean, practical systems that prevent overbooking without creating unnecessary administration. Restaurants, especially independents and small groups, need similar clarity around covers, sittings and peak-time capacity.

3. Connect payments to the customer journey

In hotels, charges may come from the room, restaurant, spa, minibar or event space. A good PMS keeps billing coherent. Restaurants can learn from that approach, particularly those offering deposits, delivery, catering, events, memberships or gift cards.

Payment should not be treated as the final step only. It is part of the experience. A slow bill split, a missing deposit, or an unclear service charge can weaken an otherwise excellent meal.

Why This Matters for B2B Restaurant Software Buyers

Restaurant software buyers are becoming more commercially mature. They are not simply asking, “Does this POS take payments?” They are asking whether technology can reduce labour pressure, improve margins and support better decision-making.

For B2B restaurant software clients, the bigger questions are:

• Does the system reduce duplication of work?
• Can managers see useful reporting without exporting spreadsheets?
• Does it integrate with booking and payment platforms?
• Can staff learn it quickly?
• Does it improve the guest experience?
• Will it scale as the business grows?

These are the same questions that hotel operators ask when assessing PMS for small hotels. The scale may differ, but the buying logic is similar: the software must make the business easier to run.

Small Hospitality Businesses Need Practical, Not Overbuilt, Systems

There is a temptation in hospitality technology to add features because they sound impressive. In reality, many operators need fewer features that work better together.

PMS systems for small hotels are often judged on usability, affordability and operational clarity. The same should apply to restaurant technology. A small restaurant group does not need enterprise complexity if the team cannot use it confidently during service.

The most valuable software usually supports everyday work:

• Taking bookings accurately
• Managing walk-ins fairly
• Processing orders quickly
• Updating menus easily
• Tracking stock sensibly
• Reporting sales clearly
• Supporting repeat customers
• Reducing manual admin

Technology should remove friction. It should not become another operational burden.

The POS Is Still Central, But It Should Not Stand Alone

For restaurants, the POS remains the heart of daily operations. It captures revenue, drives kitchen communication, supports payments and provides sales reporting. But the POS becomes far more powerful when it sits within a connected hospitality stack.

A standalone POS can tell you what sold yesterday. A connected system can help explain why it sold, who bought it, whether the margin was strong and what action should follow.

That is where PMS thinking becomes useful. Hotels have long understood that operational data is only valuable when it supports decisions. Restaurants can use that same approach to improve rota planning, menu engineering, customer retention and event sales.

What Restaurant Owners Should Look For Next

Restaurant operators do not need to copy hotels directly. A restaurant is not a bedroom inventory business, and the service rhythm is different. But the best hospitality technology shares common qualities.

Owners should look for systems that are:

• Simple enough for staff to use under pressure
• Flexible enough to support different revenue streams
• Clear enough to inform management decisions
• Open enough to integrate with other tools
• Secure enough to protect customer and payment data
• Scalable enough to grow with the business

The strongest technology choices are rarely the flashiest. They are the ones that fit the operation, improve consistency and help the team serve guests better.

Final Thoughts: Hospitality Software Is Moving Towards One Guest View

The future of restaurant technology is not about replacing people with systems. It is about giving people better information at the right moment.

Hotels, especially those using modern PMS platforms, have already shown the value of joined-up guest management. Restaurants can take the same strategic lesson and apply it to tables, orders, payments, loyalty and events.

For restaurant owners, POS buyers and B2B software clients, the opportunity is clear: stop thinking only in terms of transactions and start thinking in terms of relationships. A better-connected system does not just make reporting cleaner. It helps create smoother service, smarter decisions and more resilient hospitality businesses.

Lizzy Pollott
Chief Communications & Brand Officer

Good morning, and welcome to Acast’s Earnings Call for the Q1 2026 Interim Report. Joining us today are our CEO, Greg Glenday; and CFO, Anders Hagg. [Operator Instructions]

I’d now like to start by handing over to our CEO, Greg Glenday. Greg, the floor is yours.

Greg Glenday
Group President & CEO

Thank you, LP. Welcome, and thank you all for joining us today. I’m here with Anders, our CFO, now 4 months in and fully hitting his stride. In my section, I’ll cover our high-level performance and momentum, and then Anders will take you through the numbers.

We have been very excited about the momentum our strategic approach is generating in the marketplace. We’ve been working on this vital infrastructure for more than a decade, and it is now paying off. At Acast, we strive to be the best place for creators. Great creators bring very valuable audiences. Valuable audiences attract brand revenue. Once we have the brand revenue, that attracts and motivates creators and so on. You can see how this becomes a self-fulfilling flywheel with Acast at the center. We like to think of Acast as the engine room in the middle of this infrastructure. We have talented people around the world. We have industry-leading innovation and technology, and we have the best data around podcasting. All of that together powers this flywheel.

We want to create an unencumbered relationship between creators and their audiences and advertisers. Creator choice, open ecosystem, no real editorial point of view, we let creators create. We focus on brand safety. Those are the

Thailand’s Agricultural Office in Guangzhou promotes Thai fruits in Shantou, Guangdong, featuring retail promotions and tastings. Online sales thrived, emphasizing quality control standards to boost consumer confidence.

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Key Points

• The Agricultural Office of Thailand in Guangzhou is promoting Thai fruit in China, particularly in Shantou, Guangdong province. This campaign, run with Shenzhen Pagoda Industrial Group, aims to enhance access to secondary markets.
• Retail promotions at Pagoda stores and tasting events on Xiaogongyuan Pedestrian Street featured premium Thai fruits like Monthong durian, Nam Hom coconut, longan, mangosteen, and rose apple, attracting significant public interest.
• Online outreach, including live-stream sales of Thai durian on Douyin, expanded the audience. The agricultural consul shared information on production standards and quality control measures, ensuring no unripe fruit, pests, misrepresentation, or harmful chemicals, boosting consumer confidence.

Thailand’s Agricultural Office in Guangzhou is expanding its campaign to promote Thai fruit in China, with recent activities centered in Shantou, a city of about 5.6 million people in Guangdong province. The event was held in cooperation with Shenzhen Pagoda Industrial Group and the Office of Commercial Affairs in Guangzhou to increase access to secondary markets.

The program featured retail promotions at Pagoda outlets across the city, along with exhibition booths and tasting events at Xiaogongyuan Pedestrian Street. Premium Thai fruits, including Monthong durian, Nam Hom (aromatic) coconut, longan, mangosteen, and rose apple, were introduced to consumers, drawing strong public interest.

Online outreach also took on a vital role, with live-stream sales of Thai durian on Pagoda’s Douyin platform reaching audiences nationwide. The agricultural consul took part in the broadcast, providing details on production and export standards from orchards and packing facilities through to shipment.

Officials also discussed quality control measures known as the “4 No” standards, which include no unripe fruit, no pests, no misrepresentation of origin, and no prohibited chemical residues. Additional inspections for chemicals and heavy metals are conducted before export, helping boost consumer confidence in Thai durian.

Source : Thai Fruit Festival Expands Durian Push Into China

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Even as shares of listed brokerage firms continue to rally on expectations of sustained retail participation, Nithin Kamath says the underlying market data tells a far more complicated story. In a detailed post on Tuesday, the Zerodha founder said several headline indicators often associated with a bull market are not fully lining up, raising questions over whether India is actually in a broad-based equity boom or simply witnessing pockets of speculative activity.

“If you look at listed brokers, you’d probably think we are in a bull market, but the data shows something else,” Kamath wrote. According to him, cash market turnover is still below the peak levels seen in late 2024, suggesting that core delivery-based equity activity has not yet returned to previous highs despite the recovery in benchmark indices and strong momentum in broader market stocks.

Kamath also pointed to another unusual trend — net direct equity inflows have turned negative for the first time since FY19, indicating retail investors may be pulling back from directly buying stocks even as capital market-linked themes continue to attract attention.

Kamath believes one major driver is the continued surge in mutual fund participation. “Gross SIP flows are at a record Rs 32,000 crore,” he noted, referring to the steady stream of monthly investments into equity mutual funds that has become one of the biggest domestic support pillars for Indian equities.

For brokerage firms, however, this does not automatically translate into higher income. Kamath said most major brokers, including Zerodha, offer direct mutual funds where they earn little or no distribution commission.

“But the major brokers offer direct mutual funds, so they don’t make anything, including us,” he wrote.
Instead, he said, a large part of revenue growth across the broking industry may be coming from leveraged and speculative trading activity. Kamath highlighted the rapid growth of margin trading funding, or MTF, across the industry.Zerodha’s own MTF book has grown from zero to around Rs 7,000 crore in just 18 months, he said, showing that appetite for leveraged bets remains strong despite volatile markets.

He also flagged a sharp difference in client behaviour across platforms. According to Kamath, brokerage income as a ratio of client float for most listed brokers is around 40% or higher, while Zerodha’s ratio remains below 9%.

That gap, he suggested, may indicate that clients on some platforms are trading much more aggressively relative to the money parked in their accounts.

Kamath reiterated Zerodha’s long-held approach of not pushing users toward excessive activity. “Our philosophy has always been to not push or induce customers to trade. In trading, for most people, fewer trades are always better. That means leaving a lot of revenue on the table.”

Markets regulator Sebi on Tuesday issued an advisory cautioning regulated entities against emerging risks from advanced artificial intelligence (AI) tools used for vulnerability detection, including Anthropic’s AI model Mythos.

To address these concerns, Sebi has constituted a task force named cyber-suraksha.ai, comprising representatives from market infrastructure institutions (MIIs), qualified registrar and transfer agents (QRTAs), regulated entities and other stakeholders.

In a circular, Sebi said the rapid evolution of AI-driven tools capable of identifying system vulnerabilities at scale could expose financial institutions to heightened cybersecurity risks, including potential exploitation of weaknesses, data confidentiality concerns and issues related to the reliability of outputs.

“Due to the interconnectedness and interdependency of market participants in the securities market ecosystem, a periodic coordinated approach for vulnerability management, information sharing and monitoring/assessment is required to prevent a cascading impact,” Sebi said.

The task force will examine cybersecurity risks arising from AI-based models, develop mitigation strategies, facilitate sharing of threat intelligence and best practices, and ensure timely reporting of cyber incidents and vulnerabilities, the regulator added.

The task force will also review the cybersecurity posture of third-party service providers and vendors.
The regulator said a meeting of the task force has already been held to assess risks posed by AI platforms like Mythos and to discuss mitigation measures.Based on these deliberations, Sebi has issued a detailed advisory outlining steps for strengthening cybersecurity frameworks.

These include regular vulnerability assessments using both conventional and AI-based tools, timely patching of systems, enhanced monitoring through security operations centres, strengthening API security, periodic risk assessments and adoption of measures, such as zero-trust architecture, to minimise attack surfaces.

Sebi has also asked market participants to closely coordinate with third-party vendors to ensure the timely deployment of security updates and undertake comprehensive risk assessments related to AI-led systems.

The regulator further directed eligible entities to onboard the Market Security Operations Centre (M-SOC) set up by exchanges for real-time monitoring and threat detection, in view of the rising risks from AI-driven cyber threats.