Stuttgart / Munich (dpa / lsw) – Around a year after the start of the corona pandemic, the number of private bankruptcies in Baden-Württemberg has skyrocketed, according to a study. According to a survey by the credit agency Crifbürgel, there were 3479 personal bankruptcies in the southwest in the first quarter of the current year – around 70 percent more than in the same period of the previous year. According to the information, even stronger increases have been recorded in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (plus 86.7 percent), North Rhine-Westphalia (plus 81.1 percent), Hamburg (plus 77.5 percent) and Thuringia (plus 75.3 percent) .
Nationwide, Crifbürgel reported 31,821 personal bankruptcies in the first quarter – 56.5 percent more than in the same period of the previous year. Over the year as a whole, the credit agency expects private bankruptcies to roughly double to up to 110,000 cases.
Crifbürgel managing director Frank Schlein attributed the increase at the beginning of the year mainly to the fact that many of those affected had waited for a legal reform. Consumers can now be freed from their residual debts more easily after three years instead of the previous six years. The shortening also applies retrospectively to insolvency proceedings that were applied for from October 1, 2020. “Since this reform is a great advantage, many applicants have been waiting for the relevant decision of the Bundestag,” Schlein explained.
According to the credit agency, the wave of insolvencies directly caused by the corona pandemic will start in the second half of 2021 and will continue into 2022.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210601-99-814544 / 2
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