The Financial Action Task Force, the world's anti-money-laundering standard-setter, has released a "best practice paper" in an attempt to suggest some courses of action, supported by cases and examples, by which countries should observe recommendation 24.

Entitled "Transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons," this is the recommendation designed to prevent the misuse of legal persons for money laundering or terrorist finance.

FATF recommends three mechanisms (the registry approach, requiring company registries to obtain and hold up-to-date information on beneficial ownership, the company approach, requiring the companies themselves to obtain and hold such information, and the existing information approach, by which countries use existing information that they collect) to identify beneficial owners.

FATF believes that "jurisdictions using a single approach is less [sic] effective in making sure that competent authority can obtain accurate and up-to-date BO information to in a timely manner." It favours a multi-pronged approach instead, people using several sources of information. The key features of an effective system are risk assessments, effective and dissuasive sanctions (it has taken to passing judgment on whether sentences in this-or-that country are severe enough), access by competent authorities, forbidding or immobilising bearer shares and nominee arrangements, and the adequacy, accuracy and timeliness of beneficial ownership information.