Alongside a decline in regulatory enforcement activity involving accounting issues, U.S. securities class action filings dropped too, according to new data from Cornerstone Research.
In 2025, the volume of class action filings for accounting-driven claims fell to a record low of 34 in 2025 from 57 a year earlier, the firm reported.
Violations of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) were alleged in 97% of these cases, it noted — whereas allegations of internal control weaknesses were only included in 38% of filings, which was the lowest share for these kinds of claims since 2009.
“For the second consecutive year, asset valuation and/or impairment issues were the most common GAAP violation alleged in accounting-related securities class action filings and settlements,” said Frank Mascari, vice-president at Cornerstone and co-author of the report, in a release.
Additionally, the firm reported that 24% of filings included claims related to AI, crypto and special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), up from 14% in 2024.
Despite the drop in case filings last year, Cornerstone reported that the volume of settlements in accounting-related cases held steady at 35 in 2025 and the value of those settlements rose by 40% in the year to US$1.5 billion.
“In 2025, we saw a shift toward fewer cases but against larger issuer defendants,” said Sally Bai, co-author of the report and principal at Cornerstone, in the release.
“This was driven, in part, by accounting case filings involving AI issues where the median firm size was roughly four times larger than the rest of the accounting case filings.”