Fall in number of new businesses – rise in number of bankruptcies

Fewer new businesses notified to the Trade Register

This year, the number of new businesses registered at the Trade Register by 31 May decreased by 15% compared to last year: we registered a total of 12,864 new businesses in January-May this year.

Registration of new businesses was at its peak in 2007 and 2008. This year, the number stabilised at the level of 2006. In that year we registered 12,219 new businesses in the comparable period.

Large increase in bankruptcies

By 31 May this year, the number of bankruptcies pending at the District Courts and notified to the Trade Register rose by 43% compared with the same period last year.

According to Statistics Finland, bankruptcies rose by almost 31% in January-April 2009. The statistics show that 1,164 bankruptcies became pending in the District Courts in January-April 2009. District Courts notified the Trade Register of a total of 743 bankruptcies which had became pending in that same period. The difference in the figures is probably due to the fact that the figures of Statistics Finland also include bankruptcies of natural persons: only some of these natural persons are registered at the Trade Register as private traders.

Bankruptcies are published in the publication register of the Legal Register Centre.

Further details:

• Statistics Finland’s bankruptcy statistics
  
• Publication register of the Legal Register Centre (in Finnish and Swedish)
  

Slight rise in number of amendments to entries in the register

Businesses have still been active in reporting amendments for registration at the Trade Register: we have received 2% more notifications than last year. In January-May, the number of applications for an enterprise mortgage, on the other hand, decreased by 13% on the previous year.