NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The number of securities fraud lawsuits and the amount of investor losses related to these suits both declined in 2005, according to a report released Tuesday.

The number of lawsuits filed fell more than 17 percent to 176 in 2005 from 213 the previous year, according to a study conducted by the Stanford Law School Securities Action Clearinghouse and Cornerstone Research.

The 2005 filing rate is nearly 10 percent below the 1996-2004 historic average of 195.

Alleged investor losses also decreased last year, the study found. Based on the decline in the firm's market capitalization at the time of the fraud's disclosure, losses fell to $99 billion in 2005, down from $147 billion the year before.

Joseph Grundfest, director of the Securities Class Action Clearinghouse and former commissioner of the SEC, cited two main factors responsible for the decline.

"First, lawsuits arising from the dramatic boom and bust of U.S. equities in the late 1990s and early 2000s are now largely behind us," he said in a statement. "Second, improved governance in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom frauds may have reduced the actual incidence of fraud."

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