By Martin North, cross-posted from the Digital Finance Analytics Blog:
The Australian Financial Security Authority today released the personal insolvency activity statistics for the June quarter 2016. Total personal insolvencies increased 13.7% in the June quarter 2016 compared to the June quarter 2015. This is the largest rise since the March quarter 2009, when compared to the same quarter in the previous year. WA is worst hit with a 35% year on year rise.
In the June quarter 2016, economic conditions (465 debtors) was the most common business related cause whilst unemployment or loss of income (2,138 debtors) and excessive use of credit (2,132 debtors) were the most common non-business related causes.
By type of personal insolvency, bankruptcies increased by 7.0%, debt agreements increased by 24.3% and personal insolvency agreements were stable (0.0%).
Debt agreements in the June quarter 2016 are the highest on record, with 3,329 debt agreements. The previous record was in the September quarter 2015 (3,081 debt agreements).
Debt agreements reached record highs in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia in the June quarter 2016.
In the June quarter 2016, 17.5% of debtors entered a business related personal insolvency. This is a rise from 16.1% in the March quarter 2016 and from 16.3% in the June quarter 2015.
