Despite Syms, Filene's, it's been a slow bankruptcy year

— -- The news Wednesday that discount retailer Syms and its Filene's Basement affiliate are filing for bankruptcy protection and plan to liquidate might cause cost-conscious consumers to shed a cheap tear or two.

The corporate casualty, though, is an anomaly in what has been a fairly quiet year for bankruptcy protection filings. Outside of the massive implosion of MF Global this week, there have been few other filings, and the overall assets held by the companies going to bankruptcy court are low.

"Companies are in such a position, should there be a shock to the system, they are in better position to handle it," says Mark Minichiello, chief investment officer at QCA Capital. The overall good health of companies is clear in the:

•Drought of bankruptcies this year. If not for MF and its $40.5 billion in assets, the pre-bankruptcy value of companies involved would be running at about a quarter of last year's level.

Even including MF, this year there have been 68 U.S. public bankruptcies, representing $56 billion in assets, BankruptcyData.com says. The pace is down from a slow 106 companies that defaulted in all of 2010 with $89.1 billion in assets.

•Limited default rate potential. Just 1.25% of companies with the lowest credit ratings are expected to default through the end of this year, says Mariarosa Verde of Fitch Ratings. That's in line with the 1.3% default rate last year and well shy of the long-term 5% average annual rate.

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•Low defaults around the globe. This year, the U.S. has accounted for 72% of the world's defaults, says Standard & Poor's. Even so, defaults around the world this year are half of what they were last year, S&P says.

Fitch's Verde doesn't expect a meaningful increase in defaults, despite the Syms and MF situations. She says MF is a unique case, and Syms was especially vulnerable due to its high level of debt and exposure to consumer spending.

But others aren't so sure. Many companies stuck between being sick and dying are just holding on, waiting for their businesses to turn around or for asset prices to rise so they can restructure, says Martin Zohn at law firm Proskauer Rose.

Volatility in the stock market only makes companies want to delay restructuring even more, he says. "You hold off a little longer," he says.

Meanwhile, oxygen to companies with lower credit ratings is being cut off as it becomes more difficult and expensive for them to borrow, says George Putnam, editor of the Turnaround Letter. And record levels of debt raised in 2009 will come due. While "2011 is a very light year (for bankruptcies), next year we might see a lot," he says.