Lenders Again Dealing Credit to Risky Clients (New York Times)

With lessons learned and time healing the wounds, banks are slowly returning to the bigger lending pool of those with less-than-stellar credit. “You can’t simply ignore this segment anymore,” said Deron Weston, a principal in Deloitte’s banking practice. Credit card lenders gave out 1.1 million new cards to borrowers with damaged credit in December, up 12.3% from December 2011, according to Equifax’ March credit trends report. “This is a natural loosening of credit standards because the banks feel they can expand again,” said Michael Binz, a managing director at Standard & Poor’s. Credit to subprime borrowers – those with credit scores below 660 – has not been extended to the mortgage industry.