The number of personal bankruptcies declined last year to 8,641 from 11,249 in 2020, representing a year on year decline of 23.18%. This follows a drop of 30.42% from 2019 to 2020, according to an analysis by the administrator of credit registers of the CRIF - Slovak Credit Bureau. "A change in the bankruptcy legislation introduced on January 1, 2020 was one of the reasons for the substantial fall in the number of personal bankruptcies that year, and it also influenced the number of bankruptcies in 2021. Among other things, there was a tightening of one of the conditions for applying for debt relief by means of bankruptcy, namely that enforcement proceedings had to last for at least a year,“ said the chief analyst at CRIF, Jana Marková. She added that a law regulating the ending of old enforcement proceedings also came into force. “We expect the number of bankruptcies to grow under the influence of the pandemic and legislative changes in 2022,” added Marková.
The long-term statistics show that since 2006, when the principle of personal bankruptcy began to apply in Slovakia, 58,062 inhabitants of Slovakia have gone bankrupt. From 2006 until the end of 2016, dozens to hundreds of people went bankrupt each month. After the amendment to the legislation on bankruptcy and restructuring came into force on March 1, 2017, the number of personal bankruptcies rose to 5,239 by the end of 2017, which was 79.2% more than in the whole 2006 – 2016 period.
However, the changed legislation had more significant effects over time. While an average of 437 people went bankrupt each month in 2017, the average increased to 1,154 in 2018 and a record of 1,347 in 2019. A further amendment to the legislation, valid from the beginning of 2020, tightened the conditions for debt relief. This brought results from April 2020, with the average number of personal bankruptcies falling to 937 a month in 2020. In 2021 the average monthly number fell to 720.
Out of the total of 8,641 personal bankruptcies reported by the courts in 2021, 8,562 debtors chose debt relief by bankruptcy, while only 79 chose a payment calendar. Last year 8,038 people not involved in business went bankrupt, while 603 people involved in business went bankrupt.
Source: TASR
