Bendigo residents less likely to enter insolvency this quarter, report finds

Data from the Australian Financial Security Authority – the federal body that oversees personal insolvencies – shows no one in Bendigo entered a business-related insolvency in the March quarter. 

Nine proprietors entered insolvency in the previous three-month period. 

Overall, 38.2 per cent less regional debtors entered a business-related personal insolvency than in the quarter ending December, 2015.

But some of Bendigo’s regional rivals did not fair so well in the report.

In Geelong, seven debtors entered insolvency, while four people declared themselves insolvent in the Wodonga-Alpine region.

Bendigo Business Council chief executive officer Leah Sertori said business confidence in Bendigo was high, and co-operation between the city’s traders was the key to the sector’s improved financial position. 

She credited collaborations between businesses, like Vibrant Central Bendigo and its street fair, with making the city’s businesses more secure.

She said the same level of co-operation did not exist in other regional cities around Victoria.

“Not only do they build economic benefit, but also relationships between traders, and that is important,” Ms Sertori said. 

“If people have a good support network, and are able to call on their peers for advice before they find themselves in that position, they will do better.”

Other reasons Ms Sertori gave for the fall in Bendigo insolvencies included the level of professional services like accounting available in the city, and recent investments in the infrastructure and tourism.

“You only have to stand on View Street on the weekend to see the flow of people walking from the train station to gallery, and the money they spend while they're here,” she said. 

Ms Sertori also called on the federal government to use this week’s federal budget to sure up business confidence by rolling out the National Broadband Network by 2020.