Puerto Rico - Bankruptcy: Personal - Total

Puerto Rico: Bankruptcy: Personal - Total

Mnemonic	BKP.PR
Unit	# 3-mo. EOP, SAAR
Adjustments	Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rate
	Quarterly	9.69 %
Data	2017 Q1	9,840
	2016 Q4	8,970

Series Information

Source	U.S. District Courts
Release	Bankruptcies by U.S. and State
Frequency	Quarterly
Start Date	3/31/1987
End Date	3/31/2017

Release Information

Description

Bankruptcy filings with the U.S. District Courts, by chapter (personal and business), by number and dollar volume, on three time bases: per month, per quarter, and per 12-month rolling period. Geographic granularity varies by frequency but includes the nation, states, metro areas and counties.

Properties

Measurement: Unitary count (#)
Cumulations:
- 3-month rolling periods (3-mo. EOP)
- 12-month rolling periods (12-mo. EOP)
Adjustments:
- Not seasonally adjusted (SA)
- Seasonally adjusted (SA)
Native frequency: Quarterly
Start date: As early as 1980Q4
Concept count: 14
Geo coverage:

Country
Regions (calculated by MA)
Divisions (calculated by MA)
States including D.C.
Counties
U.S. district courts
Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands
Metro areas under OMB 18-03 and 18-04 delineations (calculated by MA)
- 78 MSAs (IUSA_M^^^)
- 8 metropolitan divisions (IUSA_DM^^^)
- 53 micropolitan areas (IUSA_O^^^)
- 251 CSAs (IUSA_CS^^^)

Do all concept-geo combinations exist? Yes

Methodology

Counting periods

The time series count the number of bankruptcy filings during a given period: A month, a quarter ("three month ending"), or a 12-month rolling period (quarterly). For instance, the 2018Q2 value for "12 month ending" would be the sum of filings during the previous rolling year: the four periods 2017Q3, 2017Q4, 2018Q1, and 2018Q2.

Counting periods vary by geographic level. Monthly data is available for the U.S. and some states; the MSA- and county-level data are 12-month ending. All high frequency series are reported quarterly.

The corresponding Moody's Analytics forecast is structured with two periods: (a) 12-month rolling periods and (b) three-month periods SAAR (seasonally adjusted, annualized rate). The annualized rate makes them comparable to the 12-month data. The majority of Moody's Analytics forecasts are quarterly.

Data collection

The personal bankruptcy data are compiled by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts from the reports of the various circuits of the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts. (Bankruptcy petitions must be filed in federal, not state, courts.)

Beginning in 1980, personal bankruptcies have been collected on a household basis; before 1980 they were calculated on a population basis. Thus, a husband and wife filing for bankruptcy before 1980 were counted as two bankruptcy filings; since 1980 they have been counted as one filing.

Filings by type

In its current form, the U.S. bankruptcy code contains five "operative" chapters under which a bankruptcy petition may be filed.

Chapter 7: Sets forth the provisions relating to liquidation of a debtor's assets. A trustee is appointed to collect and liquidate the assets and distribute the proceeds to creditors in accordance with set priorities.
Chapter 9: A reorganization of debts (like a Chapter 11) but is exclusively available to municipalities and public agencies.
Chapter 11: A reorganization where a debtor seeks to rehabilitate and reorganize its financial structure. Is normally used by businesses but can be filed by an individual debtor. Added in 1986.
Chapter 12: Developed for family farmers exclusively. Seeks to reorganize and rehabilitate the financial structure of the debtor. Normally it allows a debtor to propose a plan to pay creditors.
Chapter 13: Known as the wage earners' chapter. It allows a debtor with disposable income to propose a plan to pay the creditors in full or in part. The plan is three or five years and percentage of payback ranges from 0% to 100%. Cannot be filed if a debtor has unsecured debts of more than $100,000, or secured debts more than $350,000.
Chapter 15: For cross-border cases, i.e., when the debtors, assets, claimants and other parties reside in more than one country. The U.S. domestic adoption of the Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency promulgated by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law ("UNCITRAL") in 1997; replaces section 304 of the Bankruptcy Code. Added in 2005.

Definition changes and effect on data

On 20 April 2005, the President signed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (Pub. L. No. 109-08, 119 Stat. 23.) The Act made significant changes to the Bankruptcy Code and affected nearly every aspect of bankruptcy cases. The Act generally took effect on 17 October 2005.

Accordingly, the new law affected data starting with the 2005Q4 period. The blip at that time can be explained by a higher than usual number of filings before the law went into effect.

Moody's Analytics supplements

We create seasonally adjusted series and compute identities at the country, state and census region and division level. We use the U.S. Census Bureau's X-13ARIMA-SEATS program. Such series carry a secondary source citation of either "Moody's Analytics Adjusted" (if directly adjusted) or "Moody's Analytics Calculated" (if aggregated).

We also aggregate the as-reported county data to CBSAs (metropolitan statisical areas (MSAs), metropolitan divisions, micropolitan areas and combined statisical areas (CSAs)); under OMB 17-01, OMB 18-03 and OMB 18-04 delineations. Such series carry a secondary source citation of "Moody's Analytics Calculated."

Revisions

Each count is reported in three analytic variants: single-month (not revised), cumulative three-month (revised) and cumulatie 12-month (revised). Hence, there is not perfect aditivity between the three variants. This is similar to Census Bureau measurements of housing permits.