Personal Bankruptcy Filings Accelerate

This year's rise in personal bankruptcies continued through the end of April. As of the end of the 17th week of this year (April 26, 2003) personal bankruptcy filings in the U.S. were up 9.3% from the same period one year earlier. The chart below derives from statistics compiled from courthouse records by the National Bankruptcy Research Center (a product of Lundquist Consulting, Inc., Burlingame, CA, accessible at www.NBKRC.com). The rising rate of bankruptcies has been cited this spring as one of the causes of rising credit card chargeoffs.

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