March Bankruptcy Filings Show Year-Over-Year Decline
March bankruptcy 2016 filings show a year to year decrease. Total Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings in the U.S. are less than last year, but households and businesses continue to turn to bankruptcy for financial relief.
March Bankruptcy 2016 show a steady decline while total U.S. bankruptcy filings continue to decline year-over-year, falling 5 percent in the first calendar quarter (Jan. 1 – March 31) of 2016 from the same period in 2015, according to a news release from the American Bankruptcy Institute and data provided by Epiq Systems, Inc.
There were 195,565 March bankruptcy 2016 filings in the first quarter of this year, compared to 205,851 in the first quarter of 2015. Approximately 37% of the Bankruptcy filings were Chapter 13 Bankruptcy filings.
“The 186,357 total noncommercial filings recorded in the first calendar quarter of 2016 represented a 6 percent decrease from the 2015 total of 198,413. However, total commercial filings for the first three months of 2016 were 9,208, representing a 24 percent increase from the 7,438 filings during the same period in 2015,” according to the release.
Commercial chapter 11 filings also increased 9 percent from 1,300 in 2015 to 1,419 during the first three months of 2016.
“After 22 consecutive declines in total quarterly filings, the drop-off is tapering as more struggling businesses and households turn to the financial relief of bankruptcy,” said ABI Executive Director Samuel J. Gerdano in the news release. “Distress in the energy and retail sectors is represented in the increasing total of business filings, and we are also seeing a rise in individual chapter 11 filings.”
Total bankruptcy filings increased 21 percent from 64,686 in February 2016 to 78,322 in March; but that is still 4 percent less than the 81,693 filings in March 2015, according to the news release.
Noncommercial filings also increased month-to-month from 61,651 in February to 74,981 in March, but are 5 percent lower than the 79,016 filings in March 2015.
According to the American Bankruptcy Institute, the average U.S. per capita bankruptcy filing rate for the first three months of 2016 increased to 2.51 (total filings per 1,000 per population) from the 2.26 filing rate of the first two months of the year. States with the highest per capita filing rate (total filings per 1,000 population) for the first quarter of 2016 were: Tennessee (5.70); Alabama (5.45); Georgia (4.64); Illinois (4.46); and Mississippi (3.89.) Se more: ACA International