Bengaluru, May 19 (IANS): The Indian financial sector would spend Rs.53,600 crore on IT products and services in calendar year 2015, global IT research firm Gartner said Tuesday.

"The IT spend by Indian banking and securities companies in 2015 will be 15 percent more than Rs.46,600 crore spent during calendar year 2014," Gartner said in its report "Forecast: Enterprise IT spending by vertical industry market, worldwide."

The forecast includes spending by financial institutions on internal IT, external IT services and telecommunications.

Projecting a strong growth in software and IT services, the report said the sector was the largest overall spending category at Rs.18,300 crore, accounting for 34 percent of the enterprise IT market.

"Software is forecast to achieve the highest growth rate amongst the top level IT spending categories - 19.2 percent in 2015," Gartner research director Vittorio D'Orazio said in the report.

With the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issuing licenses for six new banks in 2014 with guidelines for more entrants in the banking sector, the report foresees 50 new banks across the country by 2020.

"As competition intensifies, banks will invest more in technology to win market share and drive expansion. We expect an increase in IT spending in branches, core banking systems and mobile channel space," D'Orazio added.