Dealing with increased rules and regulations is not just aburden for credit unions and other financial institutions in theUnited States.

More than half – 55% – of the respondents in an internationalsurvey of compliance and anti-money laundering officers, directorsand vice presidents identified growing regulations and enforcement as key challenges for them in thecoming year.

And more than 60% of the 600 respondents said staffing andtraining shortfalls also posed significant challenges, according to the July 2011 joint surveyby Dow Jones Risk & Compliance and the Association of CertifiedAnti-Money Laundering Specialists.

False positives and other issues in working with outside vendors exacerbate the problem, the survey's sponsorssaid.

“The survey highlights the fact that institutions are stretchedoperationally and struggling with the workload generated by theirclient screening systems. A significant proportion of therespondents also reported that they have little confidence in theaccuracy of their screening data and said they do not proactivelytest the accuracy of the information they receive from dataproviders,” said Rupert de Ruig, managing director of risk andcompliance for Dow Jones & Company.

Every time a customer or member name matches a name on a list,it has to be investigated. About 45% of the respondents said themajority of their alerts are low-level matches or false positives.About a third said they've never reviewed the quality of data forclient screening, fraud, sanctions or transaction filtering.

“The increase in the size of watch lists in recent years hasadded significantly to the workload, which may become overwhelming,leading to mistakes and potential regulatory exposure if theseissues are not addressed,” de Ruig said.