Credit Card and Finance Blog

NEW YORK—More people opened new credit card accounts last year, as the banking industry began to loosen standards it tightened during the recession.

The number of new cards issued to consumers rose 14 percent in 2011 to about 42.3 million, according to data provided by TransUnion. And about a quarter of those cards—roughly 10.7 million—went to people with less-than-stellar credit histories, TransUnion said.

The credit reporting agency said the increased lending to people with lower credit scores doesn’t mean the climate has shifted back to where it was in 2006 and 2007. Lending standards have tightened dramatically since then, said Ezra Becker, vice president of research and consulting in TransUnion’s financial services business unit.

But the combination of tight competition for top-rated consumers with improvement in the economy is encouraging banks to take a closer look at lending to consumers who made a few mistakes in the past. This is the second straight quarter that subprime consumers are getting a larger slice of the credit pie than they did during the depth of the Great Recession.

Becker noted that today’s “subprime” card hold……………. continues on Denver Post