Bankruptcy Filings by Major Companies Soar

Publicly traded U.S. companies filed for bankruptcy in record numbers in 2001, an indication that banks will need to keep a sharp eye on credit quality in their loan portfolios through the rest of this year, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.

A total of 257 public companies, with some $258.5 billion in assets, filed for bankruptcy last year, a hefty 46% increase over the previous record of 176 filings set a year earlier, the FDIC said in a staff research report.

The figures include the recent bankruptcy of Enron Corp., the largest in U.S. history.