IT spend for banking & securities firms to grow 9.8%: Gartner

Indian banking and securities companies' spending on IT products and services will grow by 9.8 per cent to Rs 46,200 crore in 2014 as compared to Rs 42,100 crore in the previous year, according to a study.

According to information technology research and advisory firm Gartner, this forecast includes spending by financial institutions on internal IT services, IT services, software, data centre technologies, devices and telecom services.

IT services will be the largest segment in overall spending in the banking and securities market at Rs 14,900 crore in 2014, due to the continuous focus on the financial services sector by IT services providers, it said.

Software is expected to be the fastest growing segment, with 15.2 per cent growth in 2014, it said.

In the software segment, it said, enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, customer relationship management (CRM) will grow at 21.5 per cent growth, while desktop software follows at 19.3 per cent.

Internal services (that includes IT personnel) is projected to be the third-fastest growing segment at 14.3 per cent, largely due to the expansion strategies of banks across the country, especially in rural areas, it added.

"The expansion of the bank’s network and increasing market share focus remain a top priority for banks in India. In practice, across all emerging markets, banks tend to exploit the front office over the back office in their investments," said Vittorio D’Orazio, research director at Gartner.