The number of bankruptcy cases in Ukraine has increased
10 June 2024 12:13
Since the beginning of the year, 343 Ukrainians have filed for insolvency. The number of bankruptcy cases increased by 2.2 times compared to the same period last year. This was reported by the open data platform Opendatabot, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports
The fewest bankruptcy cases were opened in 2019. It was the first year when the law allowed citizens to declare themselves insolvent in court. Back then, 22 bankruptcy cases were opened.
Since then, the number of people who wanted to declare themselves insolvent has been steadily increasing: 8.3 times in 2020 and 2.7 times in 2021.
In total, 1,993 bankruptcy cases have been opened against Ukrainians. Every second bankrupt is aged 25 to 45: 58% or more than 1.1 thousand. A third of bankrupts are over 45 years old – 38.3% or 764 people. The lowest number of bankrupts is among young people under 25 – only 3.7%.
The gender distribution was almost equal. 54% of all bankrupts are men, and 46% are women.
The Verkhovna Rada allowed individuals to become bankrupt in October 2018. The procedure became fully operational in 2019. Since then, a person in a difficult financial situation can initiate bankruptcy and, after going through the entire procedure, get rid of debts.
Denys Lykhopiok, attorney-at-law, insolvency receiver, member of the Qualification Commission of Insolvency Receivers, and bankruptcy specialist, noted that court statistics do not reflect the real number of debtors in difficulty who could benefit from bankruptcy proceedings.
According to him, the bankruptcy procedure is not well-known and widespread among Ukrainians, and there are several reasons for this: it is expensive, complicated and incomprehensible without the help of a lawyer, for whom the debtor may simply not have the funds.
“In addition, creditors and financial institutions are not very willing to file their claims in such court cases, hoping to collect the debt after the person’s solvency is restored and save on court costs, or vice versa, trying to torpedo the procedure by discrediting the debtor. On the other hand, citizens also need to realise that this procedure is not about writing off debts, but about trying to find an agreement with creditors through the court procedure and the insolvency officer,”
– said Lykhopyok.
