2024 was a year that got progressively busier for insolvency practitioners and it looks like it will carry on into 2025 based on the Jan figures. The economy continues to struggle on, with businesses facing shrinking margins and decreased demand. The OCR began to drop from the middle of the year, earlier than originally indicated (originally projected to be mid 2025) with the next announcement due out in a few weeks, pundits seem to be predicting another cut of 25 – 50 points. To date these drops have yet to have the desired effect due to the 12-month lag between the drop taking place and the effect being felt. Latest unemployment figures released in January showed the level of unemployed rising to 5.1%.

Winding Up Applications

January is traditionally one of the slower months for winding up applications being advertised (public holidays, Christmas break etc.) but not so in 2025. Last month there were more winding up applications than any other single month in the last 5 years (the next closest was October 2024 with 125).

What was this driven by? In a nutshell IRD. They advertised 100 of the 130 applications for the month. That's 3x what the advertised in January last year and 13 above their next highest months (August & October 2024).

If this is how the year is starting the courts will be pumping with liquidation work and the Official Assignee will be needing to hire a few new staff to deal with all the IRD work it will be seeing. Historically a fair chunk (around 70%) of the IRD applications end up in liquidation.

The 2024 total year applications were up almost 30% on 2023 and close to double the 2021 and 2022 total year figures. Definitely a sign of the times as creditors continue to get tough with debtors and pile on the pressure to recover their funds.

Of the total appointments for 2024, IRD made up 702 of the applications or 63%, the balance of the applications were made by all other creditors combined. The averages over the last 5 years for IRD applications is generally between 55% and 60% of the total (though January 25 was 77%). The IRD's activity remains up on past years as expected given the tax arrears they are trying to recover ($8 billion as at June 2024) through increased enforcement and the additional funding the government are providing them to achieve these recovery goals.

The IRD has continued with its 22-month streak of having more applications than all other creditors. The last time they made less applications was back in March 2023.

The Auckland High Court deals with more winding up applications than the rest of the country combined. That is a fair bit of creditor enforcement and a wide margin between Auckland and the rest of the country. Of interest Christchurch managed to nab the 2nd spot ahead of the capital, potentially the result of the slowdown in building work in the region following the rebuild finishing up and a general slowdown across the industry.

The top 5 were in the same order as the population cap from the Stats NZ 2024 data - Auckland, Canterbury, Wellington, Waikato & Bay of Plenty

Personal Receiverships

Personal receiverships jumped 50% in 2024 up from the 2023 numbers, comparatively personal receiverships soured 400%+ when compared to the 2022 numbers.

As a percentage those are big changes and appear to be driven by the preference of some lenders take towards obtaining a personal general security agreement from borrowers which allows them to appoint receivers upon default, rather than the traditional approach used by the bulk of lenders of relying on the, often slower to enforce, personal guarantee to recover their debts.

January 2025 has started slightly above January 2024 aligning with the winding up applications that we are likely to be in for a busy year of various insolvency appointments. This increase in personal receiverships is yet to be reflected in the formal personal insolvency appointments (bankruptcy, NAP and DRO) yet.

Because there is no public record or available reports on the result of the receiverships (unlike when a company is in receivership the report is available on the register) it is difficult to see how successful the appointment may be and if any funds are recovered along with what the costs involved were on each appointment.

Company Insolvencies – Liquidations, Receiverships, and Voluntary Administrations

December 2024 saw a jump on past years. The increase come from shareholder insolvent liquidations which have doubled on past years, while court insolvent liquidations have remained steady and solvent liquidations have seen a slight drop. January 2025 has started the year on a similar level to 2018 figures, so while not a massive start we have broken 100 appointments in January for the first time in 6 years.

Total insolvency appointments for the year continue to increase beating out all appointment figures back to 2013, so there have been more appointments in 2024 than in any of the last 10 years. With 2,784 appointments in the year. We expect the higher insolvency appointment levels will continue into 2025 at least due to a large backlog at IRD and a struggling economy affecting most industries and restricting consumer spending.

The total corporate appointments are still down 1000 odd appointments on the highs of 2009 when the levels were up to 3,797.

Solvent liquidations remained down on the long-term average (13%), while insolvent shareholder appointments in December far exceeded their long-term average of 51%. The other appointment types donated a point down on their long-term averages to see this rise. I have not provided the breakdown for January 2025 as it is largely insolvency shareholder appointments with the courts not dealing with winding up applications for most of the month.

The gap that has grown between corporate and personal insolvencies has continued to remain sizable; they are yet to return to their long-term trend of tracking each other. This has largely been caused by the rise in corporate insolvency and the continued low levels of personal insolvencies.

Personal Insolvencies – Bankruptcy, No Asset Procedure and Debt Repayment Orders.

Personal insolvency appointment figures for Bankruptcy, NAP and DRO dropped to their lowest December seen in the above graph.

While we are expecting to see corporate insolvencies continuing to grow into next year, I don’t believe we will see a lift in personal insolvencies till early 2025. There is traditionally a slow down over Christmas and January, in part due to the closure of the courts but also as people return to work in February and have to deal with the Christmas overspend, this may be when we see a lift in personal insolvency figures.

Where to from here?

As mentioned last year moving into 2025 the expectation is that there will be further large businesses to fail as the recovery continues and the IRD keeps pressure on businesses with arrears to be recovered

There will be continued busy times for insolvency practitioners for the next 2-3 years as we deal with the tail from the latest recession.

If you want to have a chat about any points raised or an issue you may have you can call on 0800 30 30 34 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

2024 saw a steady rise in corporate insolvencies across the year, driven by a number of factors including businesses shrinking margins, increased creditor action, historical debts incurred over Covid catching up with businesses, a stalled property finance market along with an increasing Official Cash Rate and a decrease in consumer spending amongst others.

A key creditor of every business in NZ the Inland Revenue Department, has awoken from its Covid induced collection policy slumber and is now vigorously pursuing its delinquent debtors with increased funding coming from the government to do so. The most recent statistics out of IRD show that they have 8 billion dollars outstanding that need to be collected from individuals ($2 billion) and businesses ($6 billion).

The effects of this large debtor’s book will be seen in 2025 with increased winding up applications being pursued through the court (roughly 70% of these end up going into liquidation). At the same time there are a number of businesses that do not wait for the IRD to take action and take the appropriate steps themselves often under the increased pressure to pay the tax arrears while at the same time attempting to keep all other obligations current as they trade on.

Aside from enforcement action we have also seen the IRD announce and begin a new focus on certain industries for audits and checks particularly those that accept cash all driven by the extra funding being provided to IRD to take enforcement action. For some business this new approach may seem overbearing having had multiple years of little enforcement action over covid and the years following as the government funded businesses through small business loans and wage subsidies, it is however more inline with pre-covid IRD recovery action levels.

From a liquidation recovery point of view we are seeing that asset prices continue to hold up, but that could negatively change as the market becomes flooded with liquidated assets, coupled with less enthusiasm to finance those assets from lenders.
We predict a continuation of the short-sighted practice of shareholders drawing funds out of businesses without declaring annual salaries. If a business entity cannot afford to pay its director/shareholder (and the tax consequences) then there are probably far more problems in the business than the tax consequences of declaring a shareholder salary.

On many occasions it is better to acknowledge the business is not sustainable and its is better to close it than try to continue with increased risks mounting up.

We are expecting to see corporate insolvency to increase in 2025, it is important to keep in mind however that this is off a particularly low base following Covid. In 2024 we only saw the corporate insolvency levels return to 2013 levels, they remain 1,000 appointments down on the GFC where we saw appointments reach 3,700 per annum.
In 2024 we saw all sectors affected by the rise in appointments and this will continue into 2025. The surprise has been the liquidation of some quite long-standing businesses.
Construction is likely to remain subdued until house prices see some upward movement while physical retail and hospitality will continue to struggle in a tight economy where consumers are hesitant to spend.

On the personal insolvency side, we expect to see the rise we saw in 2024 to personal receiverships continue to increase. This has been driven by the rise in taking General Security Agreements over individuals as lenders have sought all-encompassing loan securities providing those lenders with another collection option, rather than just relying on Personal Guarantees which can be time consuming to enforce.

During 2024 personal insolvency (bankruptcy, NAP and DRO) reached some of its lowest levels and has yet to increase in line with corporate insolvency, we are expecting to see this increase in 2025. Individuals continue to struggle from the increased cost of living, while inflation may have decreased it is deflation, so the inflation experienced over the last few years has meant that prices rose and have continued to stay high while wages have yet to catch up. While we may see the OCR will likely decrease in 2025 it can take between 12 - 18 months for this to flow through to the economy.

Following another OCR drop (50 points) we are now heading into the Christmas break with no new announcements till February, 3 months does seem a long time to wait for any further changes. Once again this will take some time to flow through to the rest of the economy, but it will have an earlier benefit for those borrowers rolling 6 monthly mortgage periods or on the floating rate.

There continue to be a number of interesting insolvent businesses covered by the media, particularly the regional publications from pie makers to solar providers. The expectation continues that there will still be further larger businesses to fail as the recovery continues and the IRD keeps pressure on businesses with arrears to be recovered. The industry focus seeing high levels of insolvency continues to be led by construction, though anecdotally we have seen numerous appointments in retail, logging and commercial property ownership in the last few months.

Christmas/New Year Hours
The team are closing on Friday 20 December and officially returning on Monday 13 January however emails will be monitored during the closedown period and staff will be available should the need arise. If the matter is urgent we will have a skeleton staff over the break.

Winding Up Applications

November saw a drop in total applications from the rising levels seen the last 4 months. While above 2023 the figures for the month were under 2022.

The year-to-date applications (1061) is towering above all prior year full year figures 2020 (239), 2021 (562), 2022 (623) and 2023 (864).

Breaking down the winding up applications by creditor we can pinpoint the drop in application coming from IRD for November, the reason behind it may just have been how the month shook out or perhaps they are winding up early for Christmas. Of note however as at 6 December 2024 and the IRD have already advertised 12 applications for the month. On that basis it does not appear they are slowing down, when compared to prior Decembers unless they don’t advertise any other applications for the month.

The above graph does highlight the “be kind” mentality taken by IRD over Covid with numerous zero appointment months in 2020.

Personal Receiverships

November had 3 personal receiverships, a total of 46 for the past 12 months. Lenders who have taken personal general security agreements from borrowers continue to make appointments when borrowers and their companies default appointing receivers over both entities simultaneously.

The bulk of the personal receivership appointments continue to be driven by a small number of business lenders using these practises and exercising the enforcement rights the borrower granted them on signing up for the loan. From a practitioner perspective there are 3 firms showing up repeatedly for personal receivership working exclusively for certain creditors.

Company Insolvencies – Liquidations, Receiverships, and Voluntary Administrations

November 2024 has dropped back down to past years Novembers. The drop was across the board in all appointment types, the reasons behind this may have been driven by the end of year winding up or potentially the changes in business confidence as decision makers try to hold out to see how they do over the Christmas period.

Total insolvency appointments for the year continue to increase in line with 2015/2016 figures. Month on month November had 207 total appointments, still above the long-term average of 164. With 2538 appointments in the year to date we are above full year figures back to 2016. We expect the higher insolvency appointment levels will continue into 2025 at least due to a large backlog at IRD and a struggling economy in most sectors.

Solvent liquidations picked up on last month’s 3% but remain almost half their long-term average, this loss has been picked up as a percentage equally by insolvent shareholder appointments and insolvent court appointments which in the below graph make up 88% of appointments. The long-term average for the two sectors has traditionally been around 75%.

Personal Insolvencies – Bankruptcy, No Asset Procedure and Debt Repayment Orders.

Personal insolvency appointment figures for Bankruptcy, NAP and DRO remain low for the year to date in line with the very low levels seen back to mid 2021.

As outlined in the introduction the latest drop in the OCR is unlikely to make a huge difference to business with the flow through projected to take 12 – 18 months till it takes effect and will only drop certain costs, the price of goods we need day to day won’t go back down to pre-2020 levels.

While we are expecting to see corporate insolvencies continuing to grow into next year, I don’t believe we will see a lift in personal insolvencies till early 2025. There is traditionally a slow down over Christmas and January, then as people return to work and have to deal with the Christmas overspend, this may be when we see a lift in personal insolvency figures.

Where to from here?

There looks to me more pain for the NZ economy in the next 12 months as we begin the slow recovery. We foresee continued rising appointments when compared to prior years and continued busy times for insolvency practitioners for the next 2-3 years as we deal with the tail from the latest recession.

If you want to have a chat about any points raised or an issue you may have you can call on 0800 30 30 34 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Winding Up Applications

Another big month with the 3rd month in a row posting new highs in winding up applications. This high was in large part driven by the IRD pushing through application before the Christmas closedown making up 87 of the 125 applications. All other creditor applications has remained constant when compared to the last three months in the high 30’s. We expect this drive from IRD to continue into November in a race to collect funds and apply pressure to derelict debtors before the courts close. It is important to keep in mind however that while this is a high when compared to the last five years it is off a very low base.

The year-to-date applications (972) is eclipses the last five years yearly total and reinforces the point that this increase continues off a very low base from the 2020 lockdowns.

Personal Receiverships

October saw a further 5 personal receiverships, all from the same lender who has made up 19 of the 41 personal receiverships in 2024. There has been a total of 44 personal appointments for the rolling past 12 months. Lenders who have taken personal general security agreements from borrowers continue to make appointments when borrowers and their companies default.

Why have we seen this increase in personal receiverships that historically was not the case, one of the reasons is likely the difficulty and time it takes to enforce personal guarantees while a personal general security agreement allows the lender almost immediate access on default to the borrowers assets.

Company Insolvencies – Liquidations, Receiverships, and Voluntary Administrations

With the normal October dip as we head to the end of the year we remain above past Octobers. The Official Assignee once again took the largest amount of appointment in the month taking 72 appointments.

Total insolvency appointments for the year continue to track up in line with 2015/2016 figures. Month on month October had 244 total appointments, well above the long-term average of 163 and past September’s (2023: 171, 2022: 146, 2021: 112, 2020: 114, 2019: 139, 2018: 166, 2017: 177)). With 2331 appointments in the year to date we are above full year figures back to 2018. We expect the higher insolvency appointment levels will continue into 2025 at least due to a large backlog at IRD and a struggling economy in most sectors.

Solvent liquidations remain well below the long term 13% with the lost 10% picked up by court appointments whose long term average is traditionally 26%. This is a flow down from the strong winding up application in the year to date.

As you can see above the gap between personal and corporate insolvency has continued to grow and will continue to do so into 2025.

Personal Insolvencies – Bankruptcy, No Asset Procedure and Debt Repayment Orders.

Personal insolvency appointment figures for Bankruptcy, NAP and DRO remain low for the year to date in line with the very low levels seen over the last two years. This is reflected in both graphs.

While we are expecting to see corporate insolvencies continuing to grow into next year, I don’t believe we will see a lift in personal insolvencies till early 2025. There is traditionally a slow down over Christmas and January, then as people return to work and have to deal with the Christmas overspend, this may be when we see a lift in personal insolvency figures.

Where to from here?

The signs continue to point to the NZ economy being in for continued pain for the foreseeable future, it is likely to get worse before it gets better regardless of the potential OCR decrease. We foresee continued rising appointments when compared to prior years.

If you want to have a chat about any points raised or an issue you may have you can call on 0800 30 30 34 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We are due for the October OCR announcement to come out this week with pundits predicting that we may see a 50pt drop given the current state of the economy. However, we won’t have the CPI and inflation figures available for public release for another few weeks/months so at this stage the OCR decision could conceivable go either way (hold or drop)

In insolvency news, I understand we saw the first Licenced Insolvency Practitioner lose their license following a CAANZ disciplinary tribunal hearing for a number of breaches including misconduct, conduct unbecoming, Rules and Code breaches in insolvency engagements and non-response to NZICA. The full decision can be found here.

Winding Up Applications

September came in just behind the August highs, given the closeness between the two the drop is negligible. This total was driven by continued strong application numbers from the IRD making up 77 of the 116 applications slightly down on the 87 the advertised last month. We expect this drive from IRD and all other creditors to continue into the last quarter of the year in a race to collect funds before the courts close.

The year-to-date applications (845) is only just behind the 2023 full year figures (864). 2020, 2021 and 2022 are specks in the rearview mirror compared to 2024 (total year winding up applications 2020 (239), 2021 (562) and 2022 (623).

While there has been a small drop in IRD application in September as at the date of writing (03/10/2024) they have already advertised 12 appointments for October, on that basis I wouldn’t read to much into the drop, it is likely just a case of how they numbers fell either side of month end. We are expecting them to continue chasing debtors hard into the Christmas closedown and new year.

 Personal Receiverships

September saw 5 more personal receiverships, a total of 43 for the past 12 months. Lenders who have taken personal general security agreements from borrowers continue to make appointments when borrowers and their companies default.

Why have we seen this increase in personal receiverships that historically was not the case, one of the reasons is likely the difficulty and time it takes to enforce personal guarantees while a personal general security agreement allows the lender almost immediate access on default to the borrowers assets.

The bulk of the receivership appointments continue to be driven by a small number of business lenders using these practises and exercising the enforcement rights the borrower granted them on signing up for the loan.

Company Insolvencies – Liquidations, Receiverships, and Voluntary Administrations

Both August and September 2024 have now surpassed the previous 7-year high seen earlier this year in March. While August highs were driven by a large government led Du Val Group appointment of 65 entities, September has exceeded expectations with minimal large group appointments.

Of interest for the month as at the time of writing (03/10/24) the Official Assignee had taken 68 of the 297 appointments (to 27/09/2024) there will likely be a few more that get included in the figures as late appointments get advertised in the next few weeks and will be reflected in the October article.

What is noticeable is that 65 of the 68 appointments came from the IRD. The next few points are perhaps something that only those in the industry can appreciate and fully understand, I will try set them out as best I can:

1. Almost none of the 68 appointments would have been groups of companies so there would be minimal duplication of correspondence and the usual shortcuts available with group appointments (similar directors/services etc). This is 68 individual companies that need to be administered and investigated.

2. In a court appointment you start with almost no information other than what the applicant creditors can provide you (the IRD is very strict with what they can provide due to personal privacy reasons). You are effectively starting blind.

3. Because you start with no/minimal information the appointment takes a huge amount of resources upfront to:

a. locate the director/shareholders (phone, email, social media, post)
b. find other creditors
c. identify and realise assets
d. conduct an investigation where the books and records are not easily accessible
e. conduct site visits
f. chase up dead ends
g. establish if the company was trading
h. establish what the company did, why it closed down and what happened to its assets

4. there is a large downstream burden on information providers getting inundated with requests for information where the OA has to do a wide sweep for information as they don’t know where services are held and who the professional advisors are (i.e. Xero, MYOB, Banks, Customs, ACC, NZTA requesting potential access details)

5. there is no upfront fee and in a lot of cases if there are no easily realisable assets the OA may exercise their powers under section 254 of the Companies Act 1993 to take no further action.

There may be other points I have missed; these are just the ones that come immediately to mind while writing.

Total insolvency appointments for the year continue to track up in line with 2015/2016 figures. The year to date is 33%+ up on 2024. Month on month September had 297 total appointments, 136 appointments above the long-term average of 161 and past September’s (2023: 169, 2022: 139, 2021: 118, 2020: 108, 2019: 206, 2018: 183, 2017: 185)). With 2065 appointments in the year to date we are above full year figures back to 2018. We expect the higher insolvency appointment levels will continue into 2025 at least due to a large backlog at IRD and a struggling economy in most sectors.

Solvent liquidations are almost half their long-term average, this loss has been picked up as a percentage equally by insolvent shareholder appointments and insolvent court appointments which in the below graph make up 86% of appointments. The long-term average for the two sectors has traditionally been around 75%.

Personal Insolvencies – Bankruptcy, No Asset Procedure and Debt Repayment Orders.

As at the date of writing the August personal insolvency figures had not been released by the Insolvency and Trustee Service, no doubt everyone in the OA’s office is too busy keeping up with the huge workload they are now experiencing. As such, I have not updated these graphs and have kept last months paragraph as it remains correct and relevant.

In simple terms personal insolvency appointment figures for Bankruptcy, NAP and DRO remain low for the year to date in line with the very low levels seen over the last two years.

As bankruptcy is lagging indicator for the economy, we won’t see the lift in figures till after the fact, however the economy remains in a bit of a tough spot. From inflation, increasing costs of living (food, power, transport etc.), higher interest rates and other expenses, at some point individuals will run out of options and ways out. The latest drop in the OCR is unlikely to make a huge difference as it will take 12 – 18 months to take effect and will only drop certain costs, the price of goods we need day to day won’t go back down to pre-2020 levels.

While we are expecting to see corporate insolvencies continuing to grow into next year, I don’t believe we will see a lift in personal insolvencies till early 2025. There is traditionally a slow down over Christmas and January, then as people return to work and have to deal with the Christmas overspend, this may be when we see a lift in personal insolvency figures.

Where to from here?

The signs continue to point to the NZ economy being in for continued pain for the foreseeable future, it is likely to get worse before it gets better regardless of the potential OCR decrease. We foresee continued rising appointments when compared to prior years. Inflation continues to be above the target of 1-3% and may be for some time with non-tradable inflation refusing to come under control.

If you want to have a chat about any points raised or an issue you may have you can call on 0800 30 30 34 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

In our 44th Insolvency by the Numbers, we look at the July 2024 data set and we review how the month has tracked compared to prior months and years.

Unsurprisingly the Reserve Banks made no change to the OCR at their July 2024 announcement. Banks and independent economists now expect the first drop may come in November 2024.

June quarter inflation figures came in at 0.4, bringing the annual inflation rate to 3.3. This was driven largely by tradable inflation coming down, non-tradeable (“domestic”) inflation appears to be a bit stickier however. No doubt the next quarter inflation figures may not show as much of a drop with the recent rates rises pushing through and the adjustment to tax bands giving taxpayers a little more disposable income.

Real Estate agents are now pushing the narrative that now is the best time to get in and buy as it remains a buyers’ market. No doubt we will be looking back in the years to come thinking 2024 was perhaps the missed opportunity for some who wished they had brought then rather than waiting for the bottom, which we can often only spot in hindsight.

Company Insolvencies – Liquidations, Receiverships, and Voluntary Administrations

July 2024 while above the last few years has dropped under 2018 levels. This drop appears to have been primarily driven by decreases in shareholder insolvent liquidation appointments and court liquidation appointments. At this stage I would expect it was perhaps just a slow month as the economy is quite clearly still tough for business owners and there is a steady pipeline of winding up applications, as you will see below, pushing appointments through the court. Something to keep an eye on for the next few months to see if it bounces back.

Anyone with an eye on job listings will note that there has been increased demand from employers operating in the insolvency space as job ads have jumped from 1-2 every couple of days over the last few years to multiple instances of 15+ new jobs per day listed in a week. This is across the whole sector from credit control, collections, insolvency practitioners, IRD and legal job listings.

Overall total insolvencies for the year remain high, and continue down the 2015/2016 track. Month on month July had 200 total appointments, 46 appointments above the longterm average of 154 and well above past July’s with the exception of 2018 (2023: 182, 2022: 174, 2021: 150, 2020: 144). With 1448 appointments in the year to date we are only slightly behind the 2021 full year figures of 1488 which we will surpass next month, the next closest full year figures are 2020 and 2022 in the 1600’s. As outlined in past issues we expect these higher insolvency appointment levels will continue into 2025 at least.

For July shareholder resolution insolvent liquidations while above the long-term average have continued to drop from the past 2 months while solvent liquidations (18) climbed closer to the longterm average of 22 appointments.

The spike in Voluntary Administrations and Receiverships has returned as secured creditors continue appointments over assets and practitioners continue to sell the “benefits” of a Voluntary Administration over other insolvency options. I would speculate that in a number of the 61 Voluntary Administrations seen in the year to date that a liquidation would have been a more cost efficient option and seen a better return to creditors given there has only been one Deed of Company Arrangement entered into to date. The rise in personal receiverships by 3rd and 4th tier lenders continues with multiple appointments in the month.

We expect increases across all types of appointments to continue throughout 2024 and into 2025.

Winding Up Applications

Applications have bounced back after last months drop off as July beats out the last 4 years figures. This return was driven by continued strong application numbers from the IRD and a bounce back from commercial creditors making 44 of the 100 applications compared to the 26 made in June.

The year to date applications is well clear of the last 4 years figures with 604 total applications. To show this increase in 2024, we are above to total year winding up applications seen in 2020 (239), 2021 (562) and will exceed 2022 (623) in August.

As you can see below IRD’s dominance over all other commercial creditors continues bringing their streak to 16 months in a row where they have advertised more applications than all other creditors combined each month.

Personal Insolvencies – Bankruptcy, No Asset Procedure and Debt Repayment Orders.

The increases seen in April and May personal insolvency figures have dropped away. The drop off was in both bankruptcy (debtor and creditor petitions) and No Asset Procedures. While this drop is in line with corporate appointments detailed above at this early stage I wouldn’t go as far as to say they are related.

Where to from here?

Like the last few months, the signs continue to point to the NZ economy being in for continued pain for the foreseeable future, it is likely to get worse before it gets better. We foresee continued rising appointments when compared to prior years. When the OCR is dropped this will not be the silver bullet for the economy some people hold it out to be. There is a 12 – 18-month lead time before these drops are felt in the economy. Regardless inflation continues to be above the target of 1-3% and may be for some time with non-tradable inflation refusing to come under control.

If you want to have a chat about any points raised or an issue you may have you can call on 0800 30 30 34 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Insolvency by the Numbers: NZ Insolvency Statistics June 2024

In our 43rd Insolvency by the Numbers, we look at our data set for June 2024. We review how the month has tracked compared to prior months and years.

We once again await the Reserve Banks latest announcement around the OCR in July 2024 to see if there will be any signal of change in when the rates may drop. The consensus appears to be that there will be no change till 2025 and no signalling otherwise. There are however murmurs that when the rates begin to drop they will be dropping quickly, time will tell how this plays out.

Business confidence is reaching new lows, this includes the expectation to hire new workers in the coming year along with the prospect of making capital investments into the business.

From an inflation standpoint we await the June quarter figures, which still take far too long to come out after the quarter has ended at 6+ weeks. We have seen reductions in the Auckland fuel tax, and the adjustment to the personal income tax bands at the end of July may have some effect on inflation.

Centrix data showed 474,000 people were behind on their payments in May, amounting to 12.64 percent of the credit active population, we expect this to start flowing through to bankruptcy and other personal insolvency options in the coming months.

The housing market continues to cool as we enter the winter months, with buyers in less of a rush as they appear be in a buyers’ market holding the power as prices begin to creep down.

Company Insolvencies – Liquidations, Receiverships, and Voluntary Administrations

June 2024 continues with the elevated levels seen compared to the last 6 years, as you can see above the 2024 line continues to follow the overall monthly ups and downs and appointments are by no means rocketing off into the sunset. The expected June drop from our end of financial year highs arrived as expected when combined with winding up applications data we expect the trends from prior years to level out through the rest of the year before dropping off in December.

Insolvency practitioners are definitely busier than they have been the last few years, evident as teams gear up and we begin to see job listings for new insolvency roles in firms.

Overall total insolvencies for the year remain high, and are in line with the 2015/2016 figures, as we came down from the highs of the GFC. Month on month June had 224 total appointments, 71 appointments above the long term average of 153 and well above past Junes (2023: 189, 2022: 99, 2021: 154, 2020: 144). We expect that these higher insolvency appointment levels will continue into 2025 given the back log of debt currently sitting with the IRD and other creditors.

For June shareholder resolution insolvent liquidations remained high while we saw a decrease in solvent liquidations down to 6% from the long term average of 15%. The spike in Voluntary Administrations and Receiverships dropped off somewhat but remained elevated since increasing from March onwards. As mentioned in prior months we have seen a rise in personal receiverships by 3rd and 4th tier lenders in attempts to recover their bad debts that were lent out in the good times and are now in default, demonstrating the hazards of providing personal guarantees on corporate lending.

We expect increases across all types of appointments to continue throughout 2024 and into 2025.

Winding Up Applications

It looks like the early peak in February may have come back to bite as we see a drop in our traditionally higher months of June/July when typically, creditor recovery action is in full swing. This drop off was not just from one class of creditor with both the IRD and commercial creditors falling off in the numbers of applications that were made.

Even with the above drop we remain for the year to date above the last 4 years figures having 504 total applications. The calendar year to June in prior years saw 122 in 2020 , 343 in 2021, 228 in 2022 and 426 in 2023. To show this increase in 2024, we are half way through the year and are above to total year winding up applications seen in 2020 (239) and will exceed 2021 in July (562)

Personal Insolvencies – Bankruptcy, No Asset Procedure and Debt Repayment Orders.

The slight increase seen in April personal insolvency figures has continued its slow climb in May. This rise is almost entirely driven by bankruptcy figures with 73 in May, the split between debtor and creditor petition remaining consistent on earlier months with a 40 debtor / 33 creditor split.

As outlined above Centrix data shows for the month of May 474,000 people were behind on their payments and as we have previously mentioned we expect that numbers will continue to increase slowly as job losses, high interest rates and cost of living continues to pressure people over 2024 and 2025.

Where to from here?

Like last month the signs continue to point to the NZ economy being in for continued pain for the foreseeable future, it is likely to get worse before it gets better. We foresee continued rising appointments when compared to prior years. The OCR is unlikely to be dropped in the next 6 months potentially 1 year and inflation continues to be above the target of 2% and may be for some years with non-tradable inflation refusing to come under control.

If you want to have a chat about any points raised or an issue you may have you can call on 0800 30 30 34 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

In our 42^nd Insolvency by the Numbers, we look at our data set for May 2024. We review how the month has tracked compared to prior months and years.

In the last month the Reserve Bank has continued with no change to the OCR and indicated not to expect any reductions until 2025.

We are now beginning to see a further tightening being covered in certain sectors particularly construction where new work has become scarce and those that are not busy finishing off existing projects are beginning to look to the renovation space.

 The government has released their latest budget showing cuts to a number of ministry’s and projects that are not deemed essential, there has also been some tax relief in the moving of the personal income tax brackets. How these budget changes will affect our stubborn non-tradable inflation is yet to be seen.

 Company Insolvencies – Liquidations, Receiverships, and Voluntary Administrations

 May 2024 appears to have fallen back into the traditional corporate insolvency patterns we have seen in prior years just at slightly elevated levels over past years. On this basis we would normally see a drop in June but the appointment levels remain consistently higher than the last 6+ years.

Overall total insolvencies for the year remain high, almost double the appointments seen as recently as 2022. Month on month May had 238 total appointments 83 above the long term average of 150 and well above past Mays (2023: 158, 2022: 138, 2021: 151, 2020: 158). We expect that these higher insolvency appointment levels will continue into 2025 given the back log of debts currently sitting with the IRD and other creditors.

For May shareholder appointments increased and there was a decrease in court appointments as a comparative percentage. There was also a spike in Voluntary Administrations and Receiverships due to group appointments. As mentioned in prior months we have also seen a rise in personal receiverships by 3^rd and 4^th tier lenders in attempts to recover their debts (not recorded in the above corporate appointment figures)

We expect increases across all types of appointments to continue throughout 2024 and into 2025.

 Winding Up Applications

 We have now seen 3 months in a row of consistent applications just under the 100 marks being made driven largely by IRD and their recovery efforts. While the winding up applications are normally driven by those made in the Auckland High Court making up 2/3^rds of the total applications, May saw other courts around the country take up a larger share for the month making up around 50% of the applications, a sign that the regions outside of Auckland are also beginning to get their share of insolvency pressures.

 Personal Insolvencies – Bankruptcy, No Asset Procedure and Debt Repayment Orders.

 We can see a slight increase in April personal insolvency figures driven largely by bankruptcy applications but not a huge change over all. As outlined in the past I would expect that numbers will continue to increase slowly as job losses, increasing interest rates and cost of living continues to pressure people over 2024 and 2025.

 Where to from here?

Much like last month the signs continue to point to the NZ economy being in for continued pain for the foreseeable future with it likely to get worse before it gets better, we foresee continued rising appointments when compared to prior years. The OCR is unlikely to be dropped in the next 6 months potentially 1 year and inflation continues to be above the target of 2% and may be for some years with non-tradable inflation refusing to come under control.

 If you want to have a chat about any points raised or an issue you may have you can call on 0800 30 30 34 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

In our 41st Insolvency by the Numbers, we look at our data set for April 2024. We review how the month has tracked compared to prior months and years.

In the last month we have seen the latest release of unemployment data showing a rise to 4.3% for the March 2024 quarter, with expectation that it may continue to increase. We have seen a decrease in inflation driven largely by tradeable inflation, meanwhile the non-tradeable inflation continues to remain high, showing we still have some work to do to get over inflation in NZ.

The Reserve Bank has continued with no change to the OCR during the month with the next announcement due in May 2024 hoping to shed some light on when there will be a reduction, economists have revised their estimates to late 2024 or early 2025.

Anecdotally the uptake seen in media enquiries into new appointments has continued, leading to with steady coverage in local and regional news media of the variety of appointments being taken by insolvency practitioners with special emphasis on the number and quantum of creditors left out of pocket.

Company Insolvencies – Liquidations, Receiverships, and Voluntary Administrations

While April 2024 insolvency appointments saw a drop in March hights we have continued the trend seen so far this year being up on past years. Total appointments for the month were 193. April 2024 is 25% up on the long-term average of 148 monthly appointments.

2024 continues showing strong appointment figures well exceeding the last 7 years for the cumulative total of the 4 months to date. As predicted April figures were up again. It definitely highlights the steady drop seen up to 2022 and the quick resurgence in insolvency work that has taken place this year to date and in 2023.

As a percentage spread compared to the average, we have seen solvent liquidations take a drop down 7% in April to 8% while insolvent shareholder appointments and receiverships have increased comparatively.

We expect increases across all types of appointments to continue throughout 2024 and into 2025.

Winding Up Applications

April 2024, the trend continued with 88 applications, marking a slight increase from the previous year but still reflecting a robust level of activity compared to pandemic times which saw 10 applications during that first lockdown. Among these, 38 were attributed to company winding-ups, while 50 were linked to proceedings initiated by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD).

It has now been 13 months since the IRD advertised less winding up applications than every other non-creditor combined. The IRD continues its drive to collect the current level of arrears from delinquent debtors. This will likely be ongoing for several years as they work through a steady backlog.

Personal Insolvencies – Bankruptcy, No Asset Procedure and Debt Repayment Orders.

In February 2024, there were 38 bankruptcy filings, 34 no asset procedures, and 6 debt repayment orders, totalling 78. Personal insolvency figures remain stagnant as seen over the past few years. We expect that we will not see a significant rise in personal insolvency till into the 2nd half of 2024. Notably you can see in the above graph how they have historically tracked corporate insolvency appointments, this trend has changed in the last 6 months with a large difference in the last 2.

Where to from here?

The signs continue to point to the NZ economy being in for continued pain for the foreseeable future with it likely to get worse before it gets better, we foresee continued rising appointments when compared to prior years months as the year progresses. The OCR is unlikely to be dropped in the next 6 months potentially 1 year and inflation continues to be above the target of 2% and may be for some years with non-tradable inflation refusing to come under control.

If you want to have a chat about any points raised or an issue you may have you can call on 0800 30 30 34 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

In our 40th Insolvency by the Numbers, we look at our data set for March 2024. We review at how the month has tracked compared to prior months and years.

Company Insolvencies – Liquidations, Receiverships, and Voluntary Administrations

March 2024 insolvency appointments continue the trend seen last month being notably up in March 2023. Total appointments for the month were 291, this is 26% higher than 2023 and almost double each of the years back to 2019. March 2024 is 144 appointments above the long-term average of 147 monthly appointments.

2024 continues showing strong appointment figures exceeding the last 7 years for the cumulative total of the 3 months to date. As predicted March figures were up and we expect that they will be revised higher in our next article as late advertisers continue to come in over April, this occurs every year especially around solvent appointments.

We continue to see an increase in enquiries as we enter the 2nd quarter of the year. This continues to be a combination of formal insolvency appointments and informal insolvency advice and work outs.

As a percentage spread compared to the average, we have seen solvent liquidations in line with previous March figures. As a percentage, appointment types were in line with the long-term average with slight rises in Voluntary Administrations and Receiverships appointments driven largely by 2 large group appointments of each type.

We expect increase in appointment numbers detailed above to continue throughout 2024.

Winding Up Applications

March 2024 saw a significant flux, with a total of 85 winding-up applications tallied. Among these, 33 were attributed to company winding-ups, while 52 were linked to proceedings initiated by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD). This data signifies a noticeable increase compared to March 2023, which recorded 56 total applications.

It has now been 12 month since the IRD advertised less winding up applications than every other non-creditor combined. The IRD continues its drive to collect the current level of arrears from delinquent debtors.

This marks a notable escalation from March 2023, which saw 56 applications in total. While there has been a drop away from February’s highs this is in line with past years but was also likely the result of the easter long weekend falling into March of this year rather than April as it has in past years allowing for less advertising days in the month.

Personal Insolvencies – Bankruptcy, No Asset Procedure and Debt Repayment Orders.

In February 2024, there were 58 bankruptcy filings, 34 no asset procedures, and 7 debt repayment orders, totalling 99. Personal insolvency figures remain stagnant as seen over the past few years. We expect that we will not see a significant rise in personal insolvency till into the 2nd half of 2024.

Where to from here?

The signs continue to point to the NZ economy being in for continued pain for the foreseeable future with it likely to get worse before it gets better, we foresee continued rising appointments when compared to prior years months as the year progresses. The OCR is unlikely to be dropped in the next 6 months potentially 1 year and inflation continues to be above the target of 2% and may be for some years with non-tradable inflation refusing to come under control.

If you want to have a chat about any points raised or an issue you may have you can call on 0800 30 30 34 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..