After turning higher in August, bankruptcy filings relented last month and stand 21 percent below the level of activity in a year ago. This year is on pace to have fewer filings than any year since before the financial crisis erupted.
September saw 87,492 U.S. bankruptcy filings. Case activity tumbled from 104,336 filings in August — when filings increased from the previous month. Bankruptcy filings also declined from a year earlier, when filings numbered 110,410.
During the nine months ended Sept. 30, bankruptcy filings totaled 921,219.
The statistics were reported by the American Bankruptcy Institute and based on data provided by Epiq Systems Inc.
The non-commercial portion of last month’s total filings were 83,471, sliding from 99,417 in August.
Non-commercial filings came in at 104,638 during September 2011.
Year-to-date non-commercial filings amounted to 876,469.
“We remain on pace for the lowest total bankruptcies since before the financial crisis in 2008,” ABI Executive Director Samuel J. Gerdano said in the report. “Sustained low interest rates and weak consumer spending will continue to slow bankruptcies through the end of 2012.”
Including commercial and non-commercial bankruptcies, Tennessee’s per-capita rate was highest at 6.98. Nevada followed with a per-capita rate of 6.84, then 6.51 in Georgia, 5.99 in Utah and 5.92 in Alabama.
