It’s the unspoken secret of Bangladesh’s banking world. The true figures for bad loans make a juicy read for investors but are an embarrassment for many of the country’s banks. Do the authorities have the appetite to deal with the problem, now the central bank has revealed all?

It’s boom time in Colombo’s property market, eight years after the end of the civil war, as soaring towers transform the colonial-era city into a would-be south Asian Dubai. That’s the government’s plan, but who is going to pay for it, in an economy already deep in debt?

Private equity firms are bringing new money, international expertise and fresh ideas to Colombo, hoping to rejuvenate Sri Lanka’s investment scene.

China and Pakistan like to describe their relationship as sweeter than honey and stronger than steel. As a huge China-backed project to overhaul Pakistan’s creaking infrastructure takes shape, Pakistani bankers are steeling themselves to discover just how sweet that Chinese investment might be.

If this was supposed to be the century of the woman, no one thought to tell the international banking community. One country alone has closed the gender gap, and it happens to be Asia’s fastest-growing large economy. Step forward India, where the top ranks of finance are filled with high-flying women.

November 8, 2016, will go down in history as the day Donald Trump, a real estate mogul and reality TV host, was elected the 45th president of the United States and leader of the free world – but, in India, it marks a perhaps equally surreal event: demonetization. Can the scrapping of bank notes used in the bulk of the nation’s cash transactions finally catapult this long-time financial laggard into the 21st century?

The OECD’s arguments in favour of a higher credit rating are endorsed by experts taking part in Euromoney’s country risk survey.