Viewed geographically, the investment restraint of banks in Germany saw our business in this market drop slightly over the previous year.

In most Western European countries, our business benefited from the continued modernization of retail banking. Particularly banks in the United Kingdom, Italy and France were investing in their retail banking activities. In these markets, we succeeded in winning key contracts for our high-end products as well as our solutions and services. Business in Eastern Europe performed at the same solid levels of the previous year. We noted a favorable change in the quality of orders, with a strong trend toward high-end products as well as solutions and services. In Turkey, where we booked significantly more orders, we achieved a disproportionately high level of growth. Business with postal service providers also performed well in Europe.

Business in the Americas varied by country. In the U.S., we were not able to achieve the same high level of sales as we did in the previous year, which benefited from a large order. Business in Canada and the Latin American countries of Chile, Columbia, Venezuela and Mexico performed very well.

We expanded our business in Asia, winning key orders in Taiwan. We took a huge step forward in growing our business in China by achieving “certified supplier” status at all of the country’s large banks. In Thailand, we made a successful and promising market entry. In Korea and Vietnam, we posted our first sales.

Our banking business in the Middle East and Africa continues to be successful, with several large orders booked in Iran. In Africa, our business is focused mainly on three countries: We entered the South African market in the fiscal year and achieved good levels of growth in Algeria and Morocco.