Australia's bankruptcies fall 11%

The Australian Financial Security Authority has released the personal insolvency activity statistics for the March quarter 2015 and the news is good.

Bankruptcies fell 11.2% in the March quarter 2015 compared to the March quarter 2014. Bankruptcies have fallen in four consecutive quarters compared to the same quarter in the previous year. All of these falls have been more than 10%.

There were falls in all types of personal insolvencies in the March quarter 2015 compared to the March quarter 2014. As a result, total personal insolvency fell 8.7%.

Debtors with a business-related personal insolvency

In the March quarter 2015, 15.5% of debtors entered a business-related personal insolvency, which is the lowest proportion since the September quarter 2009 (14.1% of debtors).

Three states exceeded the national proportion of debtors entering a business-related personal insolvency in the March quarter 2015:

• Western Australia (21.0% of Western Australia’s debtors)
• Victoria (16.4% of Victoria’s debtors)
• Queensland (16.0% of Queensland’s debtors)

Causes of personal insolvency

According to the report, the most common causes of insolvent debtors entering a personal insolvency in the March quarter 2015 are:

• economic conditions where the personal insolvency was business related (390 debtors);
• unemployment or loss of income where the personal insolvency was non-business related or unknown (1932 debtors).

Further information and a full copy of the report is available here.