Bankruptcies increase for the second month

Epican Atlanta-based legal services industry intelligence provider, released its February 2022 bankruptcy filing statistics from its new Bankruptcy analysis platform which found that deposits rose 3.2% last month to 26,985 deposits of all types, up from 26,194 in January, but down from 27,957 in December.

Comparing year-over-year data from February 2021 to February 2022, bankruptcy cases opened decreased by 1.1%, from 723,725 cases opened in 2021 to 714,866 cases in 2022.

Breaking down the data, individual Chapter 13 bankruptcies remained essentially flat in February. February saw 10,306 new filings – this number is now down slightly from January, when 10,345 new filings were recorded. In February 2022, the Southeastern United States region continued to drive new Chapter 13 filings with Georgia (1,040), Alabama (791), Tennessee (712), and Florida ( 701) in the lead as the largest states with filing activity.

Individual Chapter 7 bankruptcies increased in February with 15,196 new filings compared to 14,295 in January, an increase of 1.1%. So far in 2022, individual Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings are down 29.9% with 29,491 in the first two months of 2021, which included 42,079 new filings.

Commercial Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings fell 10.8% to 203 filings from 225 in January. Of these, 93 belonged to subchapter V, up 16.5% from 80 the previous month. These small business deposits are a key metric to watch as we emerge from the pandemic and government assistance ends. Total commercial filings across all chapters were 1,420, down 5.4% from January 2022, which had 1,501 new filings

“While new February 2022 bankruptcy filings continue to be well below pre-pandemic levels, Chapter 7s are up and individual Chapter 13 filings were flat month over month. , even though February is three days less than January,” said Chris Kruse, SVP of Epiq Bankruptcy Technology. “We are monitoring these trends closely.”