On some maps of the world, most of the countries of Asia, along with many of those in Africa and Latin America, are coloured red. A few, including China, are a dark shade of orange; and two others, Afghanistan and North Korea, the fieriest of ochres. These are maps produced by Transparency International, an organisation that monitors global corruption. The dark hues reflect these countries’ mostly poor reputations when it comes to graft. In all of Asia, only Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan make the cleanest 20 in Transparency International’s corruption index.

This is a big worry for multinational companies, many of which have large and expanding operations in Asia, home to the world’s fastest-growing economies. Managers are obliged to spend time and energy figuring out how to avoid paying bribes or, at least, how to pay without being caught. Some multinationals hire middlemen to deal with the messy realities. That gives senior executives a degree of distance.

But there are signs that this is no longer enough. Anti-corruption authorities in the US and Europe are becoming more vigilant about what their companies get up to abroad. In Asia, too, the environment is changing. Multinationals are discovering that there is only one thing worse than operating in a country where corruption is rampant: operating in one where corruption was once rampant – but is no longer tolerated.