WEST CHESTER, PA — Mole Street and HubSpot will use new survey data from 270 U.S. financial services leaders to argue that fragmented data and weak technology integration are constraining growth more than regulation, with the companies presenting the findings Oct. 20 at Money20/20 USA in Las Vegas.
The research found that 30% of respondents identified difficulty proving returns on marketing and technology investments as a top growth barrier, while another 30% pointed to fragmented or poor-quality data. Regulatory and compliance constraints ranked behind both at 26%.
Seventy-eight percent of respondents reported that organizational silos, disconnected systems and incomplete client data limit their ability to deliver a modern client experience. Only half reported having a customer relationship management system fully integrated with other systems holding client information.
The findings come from The State of Financial Services Growth, a 2026 report produced jointly by West Chester-based Mole Street and HubSpot. Participants included executives from banks, credit unions, accounting firms, wealth managers, fintech companies and investment firms.
Retention and customer acquisition were nearly tied as the leading growth priorities, at 41% and 40%, respectively. Personalized recommendations and communications ranked as the most difficult client expectation to meet.
Artificial intelligence and automation also emerged as the leading external force shaping growth strategy, ahead of inflation, interest rates and regulation. Ninety-seven percent of surveyed firms reported either using AI or planning to adopt it, but fewer than half had deployed the technology across multiple business functions.
The report found a stronger performance profile among firms classified as advanced AI adopters. Those companies were 68% more likely to report significant improvement in client retention over the previous year.
Seventy-six percent of advanced adopters also reported full alignment across marketing, sales and client experience teams, compared with 58% of respondents overall.
Financial services leaders ranked AI and CRM technology as the two investments most likely to strengthen their competitive position over the next 12 months, with the report emphasizing the use of both technologies against unified client data.
Mole Street and HubSpot will present the findings during a hosted breakfast session titled “Siloed to Connected: The FinServ Growth Model” from 9 to 10 a.m. PT at The Venetian.
HubSpot Solutions Architect Zachary Jagentenfl and Mole Street Director of Solution Architecture Chris DiPetrio will lead the session and take audience questions.
The presentation will also include case studies from financial institutions that integrated customer and operational data. Keesler Federal Credit Union connected core banking data with HubSpot to give its marketing team greater control over campaigns, while NQM Funding used a unified broker-data and outreach system as it expanded to $4 billion in annual funding.
“They have the clients, the data and the tools. What they do not have is a way to make those three work together,” Mole Street Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer Brendan Walsh said of financial institutions confronting growth constraints.
Mole Street implements and migrates clients to HubSpot and connects the platform with core banking, practice management and operational systems used by financial services organizations.
The Money20/20 session is intended for senior executives from banks, credit unions, payments companies, fintech firms and software companies. Attendance is limited to 80 people on a first-come, first-served basis.
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