| Annual and quarterly bankruptcy filings by consumers jumped, but monthly activity was lower.
Last year, 1,064,927 consumer bankruptcies were filed, the American Bankruptcy Institute reported yesterday. Filings were up around one-third from a revised 801,840 filings during 2007.
The statistics were based on data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center, according to ABI -- whose more than 11,700 members include lenders, attorneys and judges.
During the fourth quarter, there were 291,117 consumer bankruptcies, climbing from 279,200 in the third quarter and 214,163 during the fourth-quarter 2007.
The institute projects that the spike in personal bankruptcies will continue throughout this year.
But monthly activity was lower.
ABI said 84,926 filings were made during December, down from 99,925 in November. In December 2007, 66,389 bankruptcies were reported.
Nearly one-third of last month's activity were filings under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code, which enables borrowers to establish a payment plan to bring past-due payments current.
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