US bankruptcies expected to top a million a year

U.S. consumer bankruptcy filings increased 40 percent nationwide in October, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.

In all 106,266 people filed for Bankruptcy last month which was 20 percent increase up on September. It is the first time bankruptcies have topped 100,000 in a month since the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act went into effect in October 2005.

The 880,076 consumer filings through the first 10 months of 2008 have already eclipsed the filing total of 822,590 for all of last year.