Borrowers filed more bankruptcies last month, pushing 2010’s filings past 1.5 million.
Consumer bankruptcy filings, including Chapter 7 and Chapter 13, came in at 118,146 during December. The count was reported by the American Bankruptcy Institute and based on data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center.
Bankruptcies rose from November’s 114,587. Last month’s activity was also higher than December 2009, when filings were 113,274.
The share of Chapter 13 cases was 30 percent in December. That worked out to around 35,400 chapter 13 filings versus November’s roughly 33,900.
For all of last year, consumers filed a total of 1,530,078 bankruptcies. The 2010 figure was higher than 2009’s total of 1,407,788 consumer filings.
Data from the U.S. Courts indicate that the volume of filings hasn’t been this high since 2005, when 2.0 million non-business bankruptcies were filed.
ABI Executive Director Samuel J. Gerdano said in the report that the group expects consumer filings to continue rising in 2011.
