The U.S. Credit Card Industry in 2009

While the global economy is still struggling with the consequences of the subprime (and now prime) mortgage crises, experts believe that the crisis will soon extent to the credit card industry.  Unemployment in the U.S. is likely to increase further, and this will cause a jump in defaults on credit card debt. Since the total outstanding credit card debt in the U.S. has reached a level of 1 trillion USD, higher charge-off rates on credit card portfolios could turn out to have devastating effects for U.S. commercial banks.