Between February and March, personal bankruptcies increased more than 40 percent. It was the second month in a row that the number of U.S. consumers to file bankruptcy rose.
Last month’s personal bankruptcy filings were 144,657, the American Bankruptcy Institute announced. Filings shot up from 102,686 bankruptcies previously reported for February.
Still, according to the Alexandria, Va.-based institute, March’s activity was lower than the five-year high of 149,268 reached in March 2010.
From Jan. 1, 2011, to March 31, total filings amounted to 340,012.
ABI, which gets its data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center, said that Chapter 13 bankruptcies accounted for 26 percent of total filings during last month, a lower rate than the 30 percent reported for February.
But based on the approximate number of filings, chapter 13 bankruptcies leapt to roughly 37,600 filings during March from just around 30,800 in February.
