As the new NTI artificial intelligence community in the NTI newsroom crowds around the monthly stats for insolvencies just published by The insolvency Service, the more human element finds it hard to concentrate, knowing that 73 of our students are, even as we type, making their way through the Joint Board's latest Corporate Insolvency exam paper.
The sweat, the tears, the heartache, the timing issues, the asking in vain for more scrap paper. Neil just won't let us have lunch until the first NTI candidate reports their feelings about this morning (Tuesday 14 November)'s paper.
Will our JIEB pass rates be 18 per cent higher this year? If so, that perfectly matches the increase in the number of registered company insolvencies in October 2023. This was 2,315 (as opposed to 1,954 last October). Interestingly, this was higher than levels seen while the Government support measures were in place in response to the Coronavirus pandemic and also higher than pre-pandemic numbers.
So, higher, then.
Making the bones a little fleshier, company insolvencies consisted of 256 Compulsory Liquidations, 1,889 Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidations (our personal favourite), 146 Administrations, a surprising number of 23 CVAs and one lonely Receivership appointment. All of these were higher than in October 2022. CVLs are still the jewel in the insolvency crown, while Compulsory Liquidation and Administration numbers increased from historically low numbers seen during and immediately after the pandemic, returning to close to 2019 levels.
There will be loads of articles and commentaries about the Personal Insolvency numbers, which either continue to buck the trend upwards, or just define the new trend of Personal Insolvencies. The total number of such matters in October 2023 was 9,881, 6 per cent lower than in the same month in the previous year (10,528 in October 2022).
The individual insolvencies consisted of 703 Bankruptcies, 3,245 DROs and 5,933 IVAs. The lower number of individual insolvencies compared to October 2022 was driven by a 27 per cent decline in the number of IVAs. IVA numbers in 2023 to date have been lower than the record-high numbers in 2022. DRO and Bankruptcy numbers were higher than last year, with DROs in October 2023 being 71 per cent higher than in October 2022, although the number of Bankruptcies remained well below pre-2020 levels.
