Personal Insolvencies - September 2022

Personal insolvency numbers for September 2022 were released by AFSA this afternoon, and it's pretty much a repeat of the last two months.

In September there were 833 Personal Insolvencies, made up of:
🎃 501 Bankruptcies
🎃 317 Debt Agreements
🎃 10 Personal Insolvency Agreements
🎃 5 Deceased Estates

Personal insolvencies remained at near record lows for yet another month, mainly as the result of a super strong jobs market, low unemployment, and strong household balance sheets. Despite rising interest rates and rising cost of living, individuals aren't feeling the financial pinch quite yet.

There has also been a structural move in the personal debt collection market away from using bankruptcy as a recovery tool, with sequestration orders still down more than 50% from their pre-pandemic levels, despite moratoriums being lifted for over a year now.

Will bankruptcy numbers continue to stay this low? Almost certainly not, however the Australian economy, and especially Australian households, still have a lot of strength to withstand rate increases and a deteriorating global economy, so I don't expect to see any significant increase until at least Q2 2024.