The Banking business in Germany performed very well despite the financial crisis, thanks to the expansion of our Outsourcing (Glossary) services, the continued trend towards the automation of branch processes in the retail banking industry and the migration of standard transactions to self-service technology. In addition, we secured a number of orders from major banks to install new self-service systems (Glossary) as replacements for existing products in their national networks. By contrast, there was increased competition among producers of cash recycling systems (Glossary) . We strengthened our market position in the field of Professional Services (Glossary) .
Business in Europe experienced a sharp downturn. It was strongly marked by a reluctance to invest on the part of the major global banks. At the same time, there was a slowdown in the banks’ decision-making processes. In Eastern Europe, investment in the retail banks’ branch IT systems fell heavily as West European lenders, in particular, put the brakes on their financing activities. However, we had some success in Western Europe, e.g., with our PC/E Suite in France, with Professional Services in Spain and in the field of Outsourcing in the U.K.
We expanded our banking operations in the Asia/Pacific/Africa region and were particularly successful with self-service deposit/payment products that simplify cash handling. Competition was more intense, however, especially in Asia, where in addition to our international competitors, we see the emergence of local providers. In Africa, our hardware business experienced a decline.
There was further growth in the Americas despite the crisis affecting the financial markets. One factor here was the continued expansion of our business in North America. In the United States, for example, we again had considerable success with our self-service systems, which offer a wide range of functions, including, in particular, a facility for the automated acceptance and account posting of cash and checks. A key element of our success lay in the technical improvements we made to deposit systems with regard to stability and availability. We also expanded the geographical coverage of our product support organization in order to promote our business in the U.S. In Canada, we won several orders from major banks.
