Although total consumer bankruptcies were lower last month, more chapter 13 filings were made.
American consumers made 106,255 bankruptcy filings in October. That was a slight improvement from September’s 108,517 consumer bankruptcies.
The statistics were reported Wednesday by the American Bankruptcy Institute, an association with more than 13,000 members. Among the group’s membership are attorneys, lenders and judges. Members also include bankers, professors and other bankruptcy professionals.
ABI says that it relies on data supplied by the National Bankruptcy Research Center.
Filings have fallen each month since June, when 119,768 bankruptcies were filed.
In October 2010, 132,173 filings were made.
From Jan. 1 until Oct. 31, consumer bankruptcies totaled 1,150,977. Full-year 2011 filings are expected to fall short of the more than 1.5 million bankruptcies filed last year.
The share of last month’s filings that were chapter 13 bankruptcies was 31.5 percent. That amounted to around 33,470 cases — worse than the roughly 32,550 chapter 13 filings in September.
Chapter 13 filings were higher a year earlier at 39,250.
