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Total U.S. bankruptcy filings decreased 13 percent in February from the same period last year, according to data provided by Epiq Systems, Inc. Bankruptcy filings totaled 65,002 in February 2015, down from the February 2014 total of 72,267. Consumer filings declined 10 percent in February 2015 to 62,740 from the February 2014 consumer filing total of 69,403. In addition, total commercial filings in February 2015 decreased to 2,262, representing a 21 percent decline from the 2,864 business filings recorded in February 2014. Total commercial chapter 11 filings were down 25 percent as February 2015’s commercial chapter 11 filings decreased to 363 from February 2014’s 484 filings.

A U.S. appeals court ruled yesterday that an elderly Manhattan woman's rent-stabilized lease could not be seized and sold to satisfy her creditors after she filed for bankruptcy, a decision that could affect more than 2 million New Yorkers, Reuters reported yesterday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said that Mary Santiago-Monteverde's lease, which she has had for more than four decades, qualified as a "local public assistance benefit" that state law places off-limits to bankruptcy creditors. The court said that the public assistance exemption was designed to protect debtors' essential needs, including housing. Nearly 2.2 million residents of New York City live in rent-stabilized apartments, according to its Rent Guidelines Board.

Fitch Ratings issued a report on Friday predicting that annual U.S. personal bankruptcy filings are set for a fifth straight drop, though the rate of decline figures to level off over time as lending guidelines become more lax, according to a Fitch press release. Fitch projects total bankruptcy filings to fall by another 8-10 percent in 2015 in light of current economic conditions. This development comes as aggregate personal bankruptcy filings for 2014 fell over 12 percent lower year over year, another double-digit annual decrease. However, “the continued loosening of lenders' underwriting guidelines and the increase to consumers' access to credit should begin to slow the pace of the double-digit declines observed over the past four years,” said Fitch Managing Director Michael Dean. U.S. consumer credit rose for the fifth straight year in 2014, topping over $3 trillion on a seasonally adjusted basis. Read more.

For more on bankruptcy filing trends and statistics, be sure to visit ABI's statistics page.