ALEXANDRIA, Va. -

While bankruptcy filings continue to be lower year-over-year, leadership of the American Bankruptcy Institute is maintaining that cases are likely to spike as both businesses and consumers continue to navigate pandemic-created financial challenges.

According to data provided by Epiq Systems, total U.S. bankruptcy filings in October decreased 41% year-over-year. The 40,209 total filings in October dropped from the 67,858 filings registered in October 2019.

The 37,688 consumer filings in October also represented a 41% year-over-year decrease as last October’s consumer total came in at 64,279.

The data showed overall commercial filings in October constituted 2,521 filings, marking a 30% drop from the 3,579 filings registered in October of last year.

ABI also noted that commercial Chapter 11 filings increased slightly as the 550 filings in October represented a 4% uptick over the 530 recorded last October.

Throughout the year, ABI went on to mention more than one-half of the commercial Chapter 11 filings have been related filings by subsidiaries within a corporate group.

“Families and businesses are faced with increasing financial challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic and growing debt loads,” ABI executive director Amy Quackenboss said in a news release.

“The expiration of government relief programs, high unemployment and a difficult financial outlook for many sectors will likely lead to filings increasing in early 2021,” Quackenboss went on to say.

Looking at movement on a sequential basis, officials said total bankruptcy filings in October represented a 1% increase from the 39,713 total filings in September. The 37,688 consumer filings in October also marked a 2% lift from September’s consumer total of 37,030.

ABI noticed that October business filings dipped 6% to 2,521 from September’s business total of 2,683.

Officials added that the 550 commercial Chapter 11 filings recorded in October represented a 27% decrease from the 749 commercial Chapter 11 filings in September.

Elsewhere in the latest data set, ABI determined the average nationwide per capita bankruptcy filing rate in October came in at 1.78 (total filings per 1,000 per population), a slight decrease from the filing rate of 1.81 during the first nine months of 2020.

Officials determined the average total filings per day in October were 1,915, a decrease of 38% from the 3,084 total daily filings last October.

States with the highest per capita filing rates (total filings per 1,000 population) in October included:

1. Alabama (4.00)

2. Delaware (3.71)

3. Tennessee (3.54)

4. Mississippi (3.01)

5. Nevada (2.99)

ABI has partnered with Epiq System, a leading provider of managed technology for the global legal profession, in order to provide the most current bankruptcy filing data for analysts, researchers and members of the news media.