Banking and securities sector IT spending in India to grow 9% in 2020: Gartner

The banking and securities sector in India will continue to increase its investments in digital business, which will reach $11 billion in 2020, an increase of 9.1% from 2019.

Banking and security firms are investing in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain not just for creating new products but to enhance customer experience and demands, said research and advisory firm Gartner in its latest report.  

“As an example, the transition to a cashless society aided by newer digital payment channels is creating opportunities for new digital technology investments in the sector,” said Ali Merji, senior research director at Gartner.

Respondents to the 2019 global Gartner CIO survey identified AI and machine learning as the number one game-changing technology at 27%, followed by data analytics, including predictive analytics, at 20%.

“CIOs in this sector continue to adopt digital technologies that will improve existing products and services. Technologies such as biometric authentication, machine learning and chatbots are increasingly preferred by CIOs to deliver an enhanced user experience and enable digitalization of the sector,” said Merji.

India saw a boost in biometric technology adoption after the introduction of Aadhaar. Biometric authentication such as touch ID is one of a common way of using password-less authentication and is widely deployed in mobile banking.

Biometric technology will impact up to 20% of banking organisations in the next two to five years, according to Gartner’s report titled Hype Cycle for Digital Banking Transformation, 2019.

“Biometrics eliminates the hassle of remembering passwords and makes the banking experience more secure and seamless. This is one of the key factors that influenced 83% of surveyed global CIOs in the banking and securities sector to indicate that they will continue investing in biometrics with either the same level of investment or by going beyond the current level in the next two years,” said Merji. “Seven in 10 Indian financial services firms are actively experimenting with biometrics or have already deployed it in their organisation in some capacity.”