Epiq, a global technology-enabled services company, released its November 2021 bankruptcy filing statistics from its AACER bankruptcy information services business. Overall, November new filings were down 5.6% from October 2021 (31,053 new filings), with 29,325 filings across all chapters. Total commercial filings across all chapters were 1,563, down 10.3% from October 2021, which had 1,743 new filings.
For 2021 through November, the total number of new bankruptcy filings across all chapters was 373,474, down 24.7% over the same period last year, which had 496,044 filings. This downward trend continues as the COVID-19 global pandemic continues to affect bankruptcy activity.
There were 195 new Chapter 11 commercial filings, including Subchapter V, in November, down 29.1% compared with October, which had 275 new filings. Of all Chapter 11 filings,, 73 were Subchapter V filings, down from 85 in October. .
There were 17,378 new Chapter 7 individual bankruptcy filings in November, down 6.6% from October 2021, which had 18,608 new filings. There were 10,336 new Chapter 13 individual bankruptcy filings, down 2.9% vs. October, which had 10,642 filings. This is the first month in the last six consecutive months where new Chapter 13 filings decreased. However, as November has only 30 calendar days and the shortened U.S. Thanksgiving holiday week, it slightly impacts month-over-month new filing comparison metrics.
“November new bankruptcy filing activity continued the downward trend since the COVID-19 global pandemic manifested in the [United States] in March 2020. While it was a shorter month, the fact remains that new filing levels are considerably less than the pre-COVID-19 levels,” Chris Kruse, senior vice president of Epiq Bankruptcy Technology, said.
