US bankruptcies surge 30%; touch 10.4 lakh cases

The world's largest economy, the US, has seen a spurt in bankruptcy cases, with such filings jumping as much as 30 per cent for 12 months ended September 30 compared to the year-ago period.

According to the Administrative Office of the US Courts, as much as 10.4 lakh bankruptcy cases were filed in federal courts across the country for the year ending September 30.

The figure represents a 30 per cent surge in comparison with just eight lakh filings in the same period a year ago.

For the nation's Federal Judiciary, the fiscal year ends on September 30. The latest bankruptcy data are for October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2008.

Interestingly, September was the month in which "the highest of any 12-month period" bankruptcy cases were filed after the implementation of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act in 2006.

It was September, when the Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the largest bankruptcy filing in the US history with the Wall Street company holding over $600 billion in assets.

Washington Mutual having more than $300 billion holdings had also filed for bankruptcy under chapter 11 in the same month after it failed to save itself from the ongoing financial downturn.

As per the statistics, as much as 757 bankruptcy cases were filed in the month of September under Chapter 11 in business category filing before the US federal courts located across the country.