North American banks are spending more on information technology now than they have in the past couple of years, according to a new report from Celent.

The Boston-based financial research and consulting firm said information it gathered from banks across the continent drove its prediction that IT spending will grow from $51.4 billion last year to $53.4 billion this year. Another 4.6% increase to $55.9 billion is expected in 2012, extending to $58.3 billion in 2013, Celent said.

Helping to drive the increase is a jump in retail banking IT, with consumer online banking, PFM and mobile banking solutions seeing rising investment. Wholesale corporate banking will grow 6.1% this year, and spending on external software solutions by 7.9% as banks concentrate on their core competencies, the Celent report said.

Maintenance of existing technology infrastructure continues to command about three-quarters of IT spending, about $40 billion.

“After a very challenging couple of years, investments are steadily climbing in both retail and corporate banking,” said Celent senior analyst and report author Jacob Jegher.