Weekly Bankruptcy Analysis December 28, 2020-January 3, 2021 Written by: Ed Flynn1 American Bankruptcy Institute; Alexandria, Va. Total filings were down by 29.3 percent during the week ending January 3 compared to the same week last year.2 Filings are always quite low during the last two weeks of December. Once again, the largest decline involved chapter 13 filings, which were down by nearly one-half from last year. Bankruptcy Filings December 28, 2020 - January 3, 2021 Percent Change From Type of Case Number Filed Same Week Last Year Total 7,301 -29.3% - Chapter 7 5,290 -17.8% - Chapter 11 53 -24.3% - Chapter 13 1,950 -48.8% - Other Cases* 8 14.3% * Chapters 9, 12 and 15 The following chart shows the weekly trends since March. 1 Ed Flynn is a consultant with ABI and serves as a coordinating editor for the ABI Journal. He previously worked for more than 30 years at the Executive Office for U.S. Trustees and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. 2 These figures are from PACER and are subject to change. See https://www.pacer.gov/. Bankruptcy Filing Trends By Week (Percent Change From Same Week in 2019) 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% 0% -1% -4% -5% -10.0% -12% -15% -20.0% -21% -30.0% -26% -30% -29% -31% -33% -36% -35% -35% -35% -37% -36% -40.0% -37% -37% -38%-37% -38% -37% Percent Change in Total Filings -39% -39%-39% -40% -40% -41%-40% -42% -41% -45% -44% -45% -44% -45% -46% -45% -46% -45% -50.0% -50% -50% -52% -60.0% 3/1 3-8 4-5 5-3 6-7 7-5 8-2 8-9 9-6 1-3 3-15 3-22 3-29 4-12 4-19 4-26 5-10 5-17 5-24 5-31 6-14 6-21 6-28 7-12 7-19 7-26 8-16 8-23 8-30 9-13 9-20 9-27 10-4 11-1 11-8 12-6 Week Ending à 10-11 10-18 10-25 11-15 11-22 11-29 12-13 12-20 12-27 The weekly totals can be affected by several factors. For example, the spike in filings at the end of each month and the timing of holidays can affect weekly totals. To counteract these factors and provide a truer picture of actual trends, the following three charts show the weekly trends based on two-, three- and four-week rolling averages. Overall, they show a continuing pattern of declines of about 40 percent compared to last year (the weekly declines were closer to 50 percent during April, when the COVID-19 shutdowns were at their peak). Chapter 11 Cases Chapter 11 filings were also down from the same week last year and for the second straight week were only about one-third the typical weekly volume that has been reported since the beginning of the pandemic. The sole notable filing during the week involved a dozen Manhattan apartment buildings owned or operated by Emerald Equity Group LLC. The filing was made in the Southern District of New York on December 28 and included 11 related filings. Types of Chapter 11 Cases Filed December 28 - January 3 2020 2019 Total Filed 53 70 Solo Cases 33 50 Parent cases 5 4 Child cases 15 16 Filed By Individuals 12 16 Subchapter V Cases 25 NA Filings for Calendar Year 2020 The official bankruptcy statistics come from the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOUSC). There is no set date for their release, but the annual numbers usually come out during the last week of January. The PACER filing numbers are updated daily. However, for certain technical reasons the PACER numbers are not an exact match for the official statistics. Nevertheless, by combining the official number for the first nine months of 2020 with the PACER data for the last three months, we can get a fairly accurate count for the year. Highlights include: - Total filings for the year were about 544,000. This is a nearly 30 percent decline from 2019 and the lowest annual total since 1986. Filings were up by a fraction of 1 percent during January and February, but have been down sharply each month since as a result of the pandemic. - Chapter 7 filings were down by 21.6 percent for the year. - Chapter 11 filings increased by 17.9 percent during the year and were at their highest level since 2013. Nearly one-half of the filings in 2020 were related filings by subsidiaries within a corporate group. Most of the very large cases during the year were filed in the District of Delaware, the Southern District of New York or the Southern District of Texas. - Chapter 13 filings were down by 45.7 percent during the year and have been down by more than one-half each month since April. See the ABI Headlines for news of the latest filings at https://www.abi.org/newsroom/headlines. .