U.S. residents filed for bankruptcy last month at a daily pace lower than the fourth quarter of 2007 and at the slowest monthly rate since August, while company filings jumped in January.More than 70,000 personal bankruptcy petitions were filed last month, according to data compiled by Jupiter eSources LLC. At that rate, 2008 would witness only a 2 percent increase over the 827,000 petitions filed in 2007.
Meanwhile, there were 699 Chapter 11 petitions filed by companies last month, according to the report by Oklahoma City-based Jupiter. If that rate continues, 2008 would see a 34 percent rise over the 6,240 major business bankruptcies of 2007.
Bankruptcies of all types peaked in October 2007 following a steady rise since stricter laws governing insolvency took effect in 2005. The number of U.S. residents seeking bankruptcy fell sharply after the law was enacted, which made it harder for people to erase debt.
In the two weeks before the new law too effect, 630,000 Americans sought bankruptcy protection, bringing total filings in 2005 to a record 2.1 million. There were 590,500 filings in 2006.
The rate of corporate bankruptcies in 2008 may increase further as Standard & Poor's reported that nine companies defaulted on syndicated loans since Jan. 1, compared with only two syndicated loan defaults in 2007.
