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Shareholders sued 120 companies for stock fraud this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, the lowest total since 1996, a year after Congress passed laws to curb securities-fraud litigation.

The decline might have resulted in part from increased corporate governance rules and fraud prosecutions since 2002. That year, there were 267 stock-fraud lawsuits after an accounting scandal forced Enron to file the second-biggest bankruptcy case in U.S. history. Enron’s collapse led to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which imposed stricter accounting rules on companies.

Washingtonpost: Stock-Fraud Suits at 10-Year Low

Regulators reportedly proposing changes in rules that businesses argue cost them an average of $3.8 million without improving accounting accuracy.

Businesses that have been complaining about the cost of complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate reporting regulations will get some, but not all, of the relief they’ve been seeking, according to a published report.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that federal regulators have said they will propose guidance next month to help companies and auditors interpret one section of the law, passed in the wake of the Enron accounting scandal, in a way likely to save them time and money.

The regulation, known as Section 404, requires companies first review their own systems for ensuring accurate financial reports and then have them tested by outside auditors. The Journal reports that companies have complained the rule requires them to spend many hours and that large companies spent an average of $3.8 million each in fiscal 2005 complying with the rule and documenting things that have nothing to do with the integrity of their financial statements.

CNN Money.com: Business may get Sarbanes-Oxley relief