WHAT CHANGED AND HOW DID OGP CONTRIBUTE?
OGP Commitments Delivered Real Results
- OGP countries outperform non-OGP countries when it comes to the public availability of beneficial ownership data. Publicly disclosing this data can help reveal money laundering, conflicts of interest, improperly awarded government contracts, and tax evasion.
- Nearly 30 countries have achieved concrete outcomes through their beneficial ownership commitments, such as the passage of legislation, the disclosure of data, and the co-creation of policy with civil society.
- Civil society was involved in beneficial ownership reforms in 20 OGP countries, either through consultations, the joint shaping of policy, or use of beneficial ownership data to promote accountability.
OGP’s Contribution
- Political incentives: OGP helped drive the political momentum for beneficial ownership transparency through its global events, which led to commitments from political leaders to advance this reform. Along with Open Ownership, OGP also launched and convened the Beneficial Ownership Leadership Group to connect global pledges to implementation.
- Iterative action framework: OGP countries were among the earliest adopters of beneficial ownership transparency reforms. Armenia, Canada, Indonesia, and Nigeria used their OGP action plans to publish their first-ever registers.
- Multi-stakeholder collaboration: OGP’s model requires political leaders, civil society, business, and policy experts to work together to advance a reform. In Nigeria, OGP enabled a civil society coalition to form, amplified their agendas and connected them to senior government leaders and the private sector, ultimately leading to President Buhari signing the landmark Companies and Allied Matters Act into law.
- Resources: OGP helped mobilize funding from the European Union and the OGP Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Armenia and Nigeria’s beneficial ownership reforms to help finance the work of domestic reformers advocating for public BO registers created in both countries.
When those in power stash their ill-gotten funds in shell companies, real estate, and cryptocurrency, it drains billions of resources needed to fund public goods and services that benefit all of us while fueling corruption and organized crime. As Tax Justice Network points out, the use of opaque companies and other legal loopholes also undermines democracy, development, and security.
Shining a light on the real people who own, control, or benefit from companies is the first step to addressing this pervasive problem. This is known as beneficial ownership transparency. According to Open Ownership, collecting and publicly disclosing this information can help reveal money laundering, conflicts of interest, improperly awarded government contracts, and tax evasion. It can also advance economic growth and shared prosperity by promoting fair competition, leveling the playing field for businesses, increasing transparency across supply chains, and strengthening confidence in the economy.
What matters in the story of beneficial ownership is how we got here. Through dedicated advocacy and coordinated support from OGP and other key partners, what started as a radical idea has grown dramatically in scale over the past 15 years. To understand the progression of beneficial ownership reform as an anti-corruption strategy, let’s look at how this reform became a global norm through the dedication of open government reformers and the support of the OGP platform and other key partners.
15 Years of Progress
The story begins at the 2013 OGP Anti-Corruption Summit in London. During the event, the United Kingdom announced it would create a beneficial ownership register through its second OGP action plan to make this critical data more transparent.
Before the Summit, Ukraine launched the first public beneficial ownership register. Shortly after, the United Kingdom created one through its OGP action plan. Then, after the Panama Papers leak exposed how hidden wealth and anonymous ownership enabled corruption and organized crime, political leaders moved to act. OGP members adopted beneficial ownership transparency reforms at a rapid pace, with this reform becoming one of the fastest growing policy areas in the Partnership.
In the past 15 years, nearly 30 countries have shown concrete results while implementing their OGP commitments:
- Legislation: 20 countries have passed relevant legislation on beneficial ownership transparency, institutionalizing the reforms in government
- Civic Participation: 20 countries involved civil society either through consultations, joint shaping of policy, or use of beneficial ownership data to promote accountability.
- Public registers: 23 OGP countries launched beneficial ownership registers which are public.
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Along with the United Kingdom, Armenia, Canada, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya and Nigeria have used OGP membership to publish their first-ever registers, often becoming the first to do so in their respective regions. These countries stand out in the results they have achieved, with many of them demonstrating concrete channels for the public to trigger investigations and/or evidence of alleged wrongdoing as a result of beneficial ownership data use.
Explore how these OGP members have turned this idea into reality.
Armenia
All Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) members are required to publish publicly available data on the beneficial owners of companies in the oil, gas, and mining sectors. To meet this requirement, Armenia used its membership in both EITI and OGP to launch a public beneficial ownership register. In fact, Armenia went above and beyond in designing this reform: instead of just making this information available for the extractive industries, the government mandated the collection and publication of this data for all companies. The register also streamlines data entry and automatically verifies and cross-checks submissions, a key technical development that places Armenia ahead of other countries with beneficial ownership registers.
Canada
Money laundering through real estate is a serious issue in Canada, especially as it drives up housing costs and can be used as a way to evade sanctions. In 2019 alone, billions of dollars laundered through the city of Vancouver raised housing prices by as much as 7.5 percent, while experts estimate that anywhere from CAD 43 billion to 113 billion is laundered throughout the country each year. To reverse this trend and support government enforcement of sanctions, Canada launched a public, searchable database for federally regulated corporations in January 2024. Provinces and territories in the country can agree to join, as federal officials aim to support coordinated implementation across all levels of government.
Ghana
Ghana has improved its beneficial ownership reforms over several OGP action plans. First, the government created a beneficial ownership register for the extractives sector, and then expanded its scope to include the entire economy. These efforts are already paying off. In 2020, a CSO used public beneficial ownership data to reveal that nearly all of the real owners behind a large-scale mining company had criminal records in Australia, including for drug trafficking, fraud, and market manipulation. The information triggered formal petitions and public pressure. As a result, the government revoked the company’s operating license. Currently, Ghana is working to update its Companies Act to strengthen its legal framework regarding beneficial ownership.
Indonesia
In Indonesia, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights created Southeast Asia’s first public beneficial ownership registry for all sectors, after piloting data collection for extractive industries. In a previous OGP action plan, the government made progress in increasing reporting compliance from high-risk sectors, with 97 percent of relevant corporations included in the registry by the end of 2024. CSOs also reported using this data to combat money laundering and terrorist financing and to identify missing beneficial ownership data for one of the country’s biggest paper companies. The country also passed a new regulation in February 2025 to introduce a verification mechanism for this data, which is key to ensuring its accuracy and usefulness.
United Kingdom
According to a 2025 report, economic crime costs the United Kingdom billions of pounds annually. To help prevent the flow of illicit funds into and out of the country, the UK created the People with Significant Control (PSC) register, hosted by the Companies House, through its 2013 OGP action plan. It has since become a critical tool for monitoring and enforcement. For example, from 2023 to 2024, civil society, journalists, and banks accessed the register more than 16.3 billion times (including API searches). Additionally, following the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act of 2023, the Companies House has proactively identified suspicious entries and worked with law enforcement to identify about GBP 50 million in UK property related to companies owned by organized criminals. Additional research suggests that these measures discourage anonymous buyers from acquiring new property.
Nigeria
Nigeria also began its beneficial ownership journey by building a register for the extractive industries, which the government expanded into the free, public platform that launched in May 2023 with support from OGP over several years. The portal, which meets Open Ownership’s standard for a register, is searchable by entity name, entity number, or an individual’s name. Users can also view the historical information of a company’s beneficial owners. By December 2023, the register had information on more than 728,000 persons of significant control, and law enforcement agencies have been using the data to flag discrepancies and investigate suspicious activity. Civil society and journalists have also begun cross-referencing the register with other public databases to identify Nigerian-owned firms tied to foreign property and sanctioned entities. In 2024 alone, regulatory and enforcement agencies have used access to this information to reclaim over USD 105 million in recovered assets. These efforts also contributed to Nigeria’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force Grey List. Currently, Nigeria is working to connect its register with other data systems to flag conflicts of interest and illicit financial flows.
Looking Ahead
Through OGP action plans, many countries have made real progress in adopting beneficial ownership laws or regulations and creating registers, but the challenge now is making the data accurate, usable, and connected to other systems, while also ensuring the sustainability of these reforms over time. But transparency alone is not the end goal. This information should be brought to life to stop corruption, detect illicit finance, and deliver real results for people. When beneficial ownership information is linked with information like government contracts and property ownership, everyone is better able to spot conflicts of interest, trace suspicious transactions, and see who owns what.
OGP members are already showing what this next phase of reform can look like. In Malawi, the government passed a new law in 2025 that mandates the collection and publication of beneficial ownership data for all companies bidding on government contracts, alongside the launch of a new digital public procurement system that aligns with the Open Contracting Data Standard. This Open Gov Challenge reform has the potential to transform anti-corruption protections in Malawi by making it easier to connect the dots between the real people who own or profit from the companies that bid on government contracts.
Several issues warrant more attention in the years ahead. Among them is property ownership transparency. Real estate can be used to hide wealth, launder money, and facilitate fraud, so making property records more open and easier to verify can help expose abuse and rebuild trust. Another is stronger regulation of the professional services that can sometimes enable illicit finance, including lawyers, accountants, and other high-risk service providers. From an open government perspective, that means not only stronger regulations and enforcement, but also greater transparency, better digital reporting, and more collaboration among government, professional associations, civil society, and the private sector to strengthen compliance and accountability. These approaches can help prevent professional and business services from being misused to hide or move illicit funds.
As OGP looks ahead to the next 15 years, the Partnership commits to ensuring that global commitments lead to real action, with continued engagement from civil society and the public. OGP is uniquely positioned to facilitate this role by connecting its members to global standards and best practices. This will be particularly important ahead of key events like the upcoming 2026 Countering Illicit Finance Summit, which will be hosted by the United Kingdom, OGP’s incoming co-chair.
OGP will continue supporting coalitions of reformers advancing anti-corruption reforms, and show people why these reforms matter in everyday life: from fairer public contracts and stronger protections against illicit finance to more prosperous economic growth.