Debt Acceleration 8-Ks, Trailing 12 Months (SEC, All Filers)

## What this measures

The total over the latest 12 months of original Form 8-K current reports in which a company reports an event, usually a default, that makes a debt or off-balance-sheet obligation come due early or grow: filings that list Item 2.04 (Triggering Events That Accelerate or Increase a Direct Financial Obligation), from every company that files with the SEC. Counted by filing date, monthly, from September 2004, the first full month of the current 8-K item regime.

## Why it matters

A Form 8-K is due within four business days of the event, so these counts move ahead of quarterly reports and court statistics. Bankruptcies and debt accelerations among SEC-reporting companies are a direct count of corporate credit stress, available every day rather than with the lag of court and agency data.

## How to read it

Higher means more filings. The 12-month total smooths out the month-to-month noise of a small count; compare it with the same month a year earlier. The count also moves with the number of companies that report to the SEC, which changes over time, so compare levels across decades with care.

## What it does not say

It counts filings, not companies or dollars: a company can report an event in more than one filing, and a filing says nothing about the size of the debt or charge. Only SEC registrants file 8-Ks, so private companies (most borrowers) are not here, and companies that stopped reporting before a default are missed. A filing filed jointly by a parent and its subsidiaries counts once. Amended reports (8-K/A) are not counted. Asset-backed securities issuers (SIC 6189) and filers with no industry code are left out: in 2005–2007 several hundred note-issuing trusts of two life insurers filed 8-Ks tagged Item 1.03, which would otherwise double those years' bankruptcy counts. Item 2.04 also covers triggering events that are not defaults, such as a required repayment after a sale of the company or a ratings trigger.

## Source

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR: the item codes each company lists on its Form 8-K (EDGAR submissions data, https://www.sec.gov/edgar/sec-api-documentation), counted by Palanor. SEC: "Information presented on sec.gov is considered public information and may be copied or further distributed by users of the web site without the SEC's permission."