The 135,913 consumer bankruptcy filings in October represented a 27.9% increase over last October's monthly total of 106,266, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), relying on data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center (NBKRC).
The October 2009 consumer filings represented an 8.9% increase from the September total of 124,790. Chapter 13 filings constituted 28.5% of all consumer cases in October – a slight increase from the September rate.
‘The nearly nine percent increase in consumer bankruptcy filings in October, together with a seven percent jump reported in business cases, demonstrates the sustained stress on the U.S. economy,’ says ABI Executive Director Samuel J. Gerdano. ABI forecasts that total bankruptcies this year will exceed 1.4 million – the highest number since 2005.
SOURCE: American Bankruptcy Institute