There were 634 commercial chapter 11 filings in August, a 54% leap from 411 such filings in August 2022, according to Epiq Bankruptcy, a provider of U.S. bankruptcy filing information, which released the new data last week. It was the 13th consecutive month of year-over-year increases — and not only for total commercial chapter 11 filings, according to CFO.com. Also seeing steady increases are small-business filings (for companies with less than $7.5 million in debt) under subchapter V of chapter 11, which were up 43% in August. Epiq had previously reported commercial chapter 11 filings jumped by 68% in the first six months of 2023, to a total of 2,793, compared with 1,776 in last year’s first half. (Even personal bankruptcies are up significantly this year, although companies are apparently faring worse than individuals, for whom bankruptcy filings increased by only 18% in August and 21% in the first half.) “Struggling companies looking to find their financial footing are increasingly turning to the established path of bankruptcy,” said ABI Executive Director Amy Quackenboss.
