Though the biggest U.S. companies may be going bust at a slower pace, smaller firms are bumping bankruptcy filings back to levels seen during the summer months, according to Epiq AACER, Bloomberg News reported. About 620 companies in the U.S. filed for chapter 11 protection this month through Sept. 25, a 48 percent increase over the same period last year, according to the legal services provider. June and July saw 609 and 644 filings this year, respectively. Large U.S. companies have been helped by abundant liquidity after intervention by the Federal Reserve. Smaller firms were shut out, leaving them more exposed to bankruptcy as government support programs expired with little progress on fresh stimulus in Congress. “We will continue to see filings for companies that had been the most disrupted by Covid and are operating in a zero revenue environment,” said Deirdre O’Connor, managing director of corporate restructuring at Epiq.
