Investor losses claimed in securities class action suits nearly tripled in 2016, reaching a record $468 billion in 2016, NERA Economic Consulting said in an annual study released Monday.

The record was spurred by individual filings with claims of large investor losses exceeding $10 billion and allegations of fiduciary breaches by directors and officers in mergers, NERA reported.

While damage claims were soaring, settlement rates remained near an all-time low and a third more cases were dismissed than settled.

More cases were dismissed totally by federal judges and the plaintiffs for the time since the passage of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (PSLRA) in 1995, which was aimed at aiding companies by reducing the number of frivolous law suits.

The average settlement rose more than 35 percent from 2015 to $72 million. But the consulting firm said the presence or absence of large settlements can make that number swing widely from year to year.

The ratio of cases alleging insider sales violations set a record low for the second year in a row at 4 percent. They peaked at 49 percent in 2005.

The number of securities class actions with a financial services company continued to decline from more than 50 percent during the financial crisis to 21 percent last year.

Of the 15 financial services defendants in 2016, 13 were underwriters of the securities involved in the alleged losses.

NERA added securities class action suits against accounting firms are much rarer than they were in the years prior to the crisis.

Allegations of misleading earnings guidance have also declined.

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