Bankruptcies and business restructuring proceedings: documentation of statistics

Instigated bankruptcy cases or pending restructuring proceedings refer to enterprises, corporations or natural persons which have filed for bankruptcy or restructuring during a reference period. Business restructuring cases concluded refer to cases concluded in district courts. Closed bankruptcies refer to bankruptcy proceedings concluded in district courts. In addition to restructuring petitions, statistics are compiled on business restructuring cases handled by district courts. The number of personnel refers to the number of staff-years in the enterprises for which a bankruptcy or restructuring petition has been filed.

Several creditors can file a bankruptcy or business restructuring petition against the same enterprise during the year. The number of petitions is always higher than the number of instigated bankruptcy or pending restructuring cases in these statistics.

When petition filed is recorded as instigated bankruptcy case or a pending business restructuring case, any new petitions concerning the same enterprise in the next 12 months will not be included in the statistics. Other petitions concerning the same enterprise or corporation received during the calendar year are only visible in the statistics in cases concluded.

The statistics concerning closed bankruptcies or concluded restructuring proceedings describe a different population than bankruptcy or restructuring proceedings initiated. Cases concluded include cases instituted already before the statistical reference year and correspondingly, part of the pending cases during the statistical reference year are concluded only in future years.

The data by area on single-establishment enterprises are based on the municipality of location of the establishment. The location of establishments also determines the area for those multiple-establishment enterprises whose activities are all located in the same municipality. Enterprises operating in several municipalities are classified, as before, according to their municipality of domicile. In other cases, data on the area are determined by the municipality of domicile of the debtor. The data concerning enterprises’ establishments and municipalities of domicile are obtained from Statistics Finland’s Business Register. In the statistics published prior to 2004, data on area were always based on the municipality of domicile of the enterprise.

Starting from July 2022, a new form of business restructuring has become possible: early business restructuring.
Petitions for early business restructuring can be filed even before actual insolvency. In the middle of early business restructuring, normal restructuring proceedings can be introduced. The statistics release the number of all business restructuring proceedings, and a breakdown of the number of early business restructuring proceedings.

The main data content of the statistics on bankruptcies and business restructuring proceedings relates to the numbers of bankruptcy and restructuring petitions and the enterprises they concern in the whole of Finland. The numbers are classified according to the jurisdictions processing the petitions, the decisions made by the courts and the location, industry and legal form of the enterprises concerned in the petitions. The main data content of the statistics on bankruptcies and business restructuring proceedings relates to the numbers of bankruptcy and restructuring petitions and the enterprises they concern in the whole of Finland. The numbers are classified according to the jurisdictions processing the petitions, the decisions made by the courts and the location, industry and legal form of the enterprises concerned in the petitions.

For instigated bankruptcies, the population of the statistics is bankruptcy petitions filed with district courts.

For closed bankruptcies, the population of the statistics is bankruptcy petitions decided by district courts.
In respect of pending restructuring proceedings, the population of the statistics is business restructuring petitions filed with district courts.

In terms of concluded business restructuring cases, the population of the statistics is business restructuring cases decided by district courts.

The central observation units (pending restructuring case and concluded restructuring case) are legal cases. It is a question of cases brought before district courts and cases decided there.

The central observation units (instigated bankruptcy and closed bankruptcy) are legal cases. It is a question of cases brought before district courts and cases decided there.

In respect of instigated bankruptcy case or pending restructuring cases, the enterprise is also an observational unit. Although an instigated bankruptcy or pending restructuring case is, on the one hand, a legal case, it is also a question of an enterprise (the same enterprise is in the statistics only once for instigated bankruptcy or pending restructuring cases regardless of the number of the petitions filed against it). For closed bankruptcy or concluded restructuring cases, the enterprise is not an observational unit of the statistics in a similar manner.

The petition directed at the enterprise is primarily identified from the data by means of the Business ID. Secondary means of identification are the name of the enterprise or possible identification data of the entrepreneur or a combination of them (e.g. name or personal identity code). The register data on which the statistics are based include all restructuring petitions filed during the year. Background data to enterprises formed from register data are primarily combined with the Business ID.

EUR 1,000, per cent and the number of personnel as measured in full-time equivalents are used as the units of measure in the database tables of the statistics.

As concerns pending restructuring cases, the statistics start from the beginning of 2003. This applies to both annual and monthly data. A monthly time series is published on the number of bankruptcy petitions starting from 1986.

The statistics on closed bankruptcy or concluded restructuring cases start from 2009. These are annual statistics and the published data are final.

The data on instigated bankruptcy cases are published monthly.
The data on closed bankruptcy cases are published annually.
The data on pending restructuring cases are published quarterly.
The data on concluded business restructuring cases are published annually.

The statistics on bankruptcies and business restructuring proceedings, including both instigated and concluded cases, are statistics based on the (register) data produced from the case management system of district courts. The statistics describe the examined phenomenon as it is stored in the system on which the statistics are based. The main sources of error in the statistics are possible errors in the basic data or errors caused in the processing of the data.

A key means of assessing the accuracy of the data is to examine statistical data relative to the source data. Another way is to examine quarterly or annual data relative to previous quarters or years.

The data on instigated bankruptcy cases are published monthly approximately two to three weeks from the end of the month in which they were instigated.

The data on pending restructuring cases are published monthly approximately two to three weeks from the end of the month in which they were instigated.

The statistics on concluded cases are released yearly approximately six months from the end of the statistical reference year.
The release dates can be found in Statistics Finland's release calendar.

There are no delays in releasing the data. The data have been published on the days indicated in the release calendar.

As regards instigated cases, the data become revised as a result of reviews and corrections. As a rule, the figures are corrected already during the next statistical month. The changes caused by the corrections are small in terms of total numbers and they are not significant in forming the overall image of the occurrence.

The statistics are comparable regionally for the entire time series.

The time series of the statistics are mostly comparable from one year to the next. The figures are not, however, fully comparable. The total number of instigated bankruptcies or restructuring proceedings has not changed on the annual or quarterly level, only the data on main industry and legal form have been compiled differently than before.

Monthly data (instigated bankruptcy proceedings), quarterly data (pending restructuring cases) and annual data (closed bankruptcy and concluded restructuring cases) released in the statistics are produced from the same statistical data in different processes. The above-mentioned statistics describe the same subject from different perspectives and are thus not coherent with each other.

The statistics on instigated cases and concluded cases (annual statistics) are not fully congruent internally. The above-mentioned statistics describe the same occurrence from different viewpoints. The statistics on instigated cases show the number of enterprises for which a petition has been filed during the year. The statistics on concluded cases present the number of cases concluded by district courts during the year.

Thus, the population of the above-mentioned statistics is different, the one describing the number of enterprises, the other the number of legal cases. Because several petitions or other cases may be directed to one enterprise during the year, the number of petitions presented in the annual statistics (concluded) is always higher than the number of the enterprises concerned.

The statistics on bankruptcies and business restructuring proceedings are based on register data derived from the district courts' case management system (Tuomas). The basic data are received monthly from the Legal Register Centre.

The enterprise data used in the compilation of the statistics derive from Statistics Finland’s Business Register, the data are updated monthly in connection with the forming of the statistical data.

The data are received once a month as a line transfer from the Legal Register Centre. The delivery of the data and the practices of the following year are agreed on once a year (towards the end of the year).

The basic data are collected once a month.

The data received from the Legal Register Centre are processed by month according to the same procedure. Data from Statistics Finland’s business statistics system are combined with the data. Possible shortcomings in the basic data are primarily complemented with data obtained from the business statistics system.

The data are validated in connection with the compilation of the statistics by means of established review routines.

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Economic Statistics

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Statistics Finland compiles statistics in line with the EU’s regulations applicable to statistics, which steer the statistical agencies of all EU Member States. 
Bankruptcies comply with the following regulations:

• Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197

Further information: Statistical legislation 

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Data contained in the statistics on bankruptcies and business restructuring proceedings can be viewed free of charge in the Px-Web service database on Statistics Finland’s website. https://stat.fi/en/statistics/kony#cubes

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Information about changes in the publication schedules of releases and database tables and about corrections are given as change releases in the web service. 

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Revisions of statistical data may also be caused by the calculation method used, such as annual benchmarking or updating of weight structures. Changes of base years and used classifications may also cause revisions to data. 

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Further information: Publication principles for statistics 

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