Governments around the world want to crack down on property investors who hide their identities behind shell companies registered in offshore financial centres.
Australia has already vowed to follow the UK in creating a register of beneficial ownership of companies.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has also thrashed out a similar agreement with other European Union governments in France, Spain, Italy and Germany.
The aim is to expose the network of corruption and tax avoidance that lurks behind the veil of secrecy wealthy individuals and companies can draw across their financial affairs.
The final details of the agreements will be revealed at a forthcoming conference in London during May which Cameron is hosting as he attempts to unite the world against tax avoidance.
How offshore secrecy prospers
In advance of the meeting, the British government has released notes and agreements between the UK and several British Overseas Territories and crown dependencies accused of their involvement in money laundering and financial crime by the Panama Papers leak.
Among the 11.5 million documents exposing the activities of company formation agents Mossack Fonseca in Panama was lots of evidence pointing at the British Virgin Islands as one of the offshore financial centres hosting tens of thousands of shell companies.
Shell companies were pinpointed by governments and tax authorities as vehicles for money laundering and other criminal activity because the true ownership of cash, investments and property held within the company is hidden behind other companies and shadow directors.
The UK register of beneficial ownership goes live in June. From then, the public can view personal data about directors and their shareholdings online.
Prestigious property
Offshore centres are expected to open their registers to civil authorities and law enforcement to aid police and tax investigations.
“Britain will work with other governments to rip away the secrecy around shell companies and trusts,” said the British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.
“These entities have aided money laundering and tax evasion for businesses and corrupt individuals.”
Recent research shows that thousands of home in Britain are owned by shell companies and trusts, including great swathes of the most expensive and prestigious addresses in London worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
