Banks Face Mountain of Plastic

Consumer credit cards have joined mortgage lending as a major troublespot for U.S. banks.

Banks with large credit card arms, including Bank of America(BAC Quote), JPMorgan Chase(JPM Quote), Washington Mutual(WM Quote) and Capital One Financial(COF Quote) say that the steadily weakening economy is causing credit card purchase volume to slow, while credit card charge-offs tick up. As a result, some banks are shoring up their exposure to credit cards by tightening lending standards and curbing loan growth.

"Whether or not we are technically in a recession, our customers are feeling significant economic pressure," Bank of America's president of global consumer and small business banking Liam McGee said Tuesday morning at the UBS Global Financial Services Conference. ...