Consumer bankruptcy up 14%

WASHINGTON - U.S. consumer bankruptcy filings rose 14 percent to 770,117 in the first six months of 2010 from the same period a year earlier, the American Bankruptcy Institute said. "Years of rising consumer debt and low savings rates," are pushing totals near the record set in 2005, when proposed changes in bankruptcy law triggered a surge in filings, ABI Executive Director Samuel J. Gerdano said in a statement. By the end of the year more than 1.6 million new bankruptcies will be filed, Gerdano said. The number of filings each month has declined since March, he said. The information was based on data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center.