ALEXANDRIA, Va., and NEW YORK -

Federal government support and other aid from the financial world are continuing to subdue bankruptcy filings.

Epiq recently released its July bankruptcy filing statistics from its AACER bankruptcy information services business. Across all chapters, Epiq said new filings in July came in at 32,375, down 6% from 34,277 cases in June.

Analysts said commercial filings across all chapters in July softened 15% month-over-month with a total of 1,696 across all chapters. In fact, Epiq found that commercial Chapter 11 filings are down 43% over the past seven months with only 2,411 new filings, compared to the first seven months of 2020 that had 4,254 commercial Chapter 11 filings.

“New commercial filings continue to lag as the financial markets continue to offer robust alternatives to restructuring under U.S. bankruptcy code,” said Brad Tuttle, general manager of Epiq Corporate Restructuring.

Analysts went on to mention that July Chapter 13 non-commercial filings were 9,080, up 4% over June that had 8,714, marking the third month in a row with gains in that part of the bankruptcy space.

“With eviction moratoriums expiring nationwide, it is conceivable that the expected bankruptcy backlog building over the last 15 months could be starting,” said Chris Kruse, senior vice president of Epiq Bankruptcy.

“However, growing COVID-19 infection rates in every U.S. state may spark additional government support, stalling new filings,” Kruse continued in a news release.

In addition, Epiq noted Chapter 7 non-commercial filings dropped 8.4%, with 21,540 filings in July. That’s down from 23,524 cases in June.

Epiq added that there were 249,314 total new bankruptcy filings across all chapters for the first seven months of 2021, down 27% to 340,986 in the same period in 2020.

In a separate news release that also cited Epiq data, the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) pointed out that the average nationwide per capita bankruptcy filing rate in July was 1.38 (total filings per 1,000 per population), a slight decrease from the filing rate of 1.40 during the first six months of 2021.

Average total filings per day in July were 1,542, a 21% decrease from the 1,948 total daily filings in July of last year.

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

1. Alabama (3.13)

2. Nevada (2.85)

3. Tennessee (2.49)

4. Indiana (2.29)

5. Kentucky (2.17)

“Extended stabilization efforts by the federal government, lender forbearance and continued low interest rates have kept struggling families and businesses afloat during the pandemic,” ABI executive director Amy Quackenboss said in the other news release.

“As relief programs recede, global supply chains are challenged and potential inflation looms, bankruptcy provides a proven lifeline for financially overwhelmed consumers and companies,” Quackenboss added.