Are credit card issuers planting the seeds of the next financial crisis?

Banks and other lenders issued 3.7 million credit cards to subprime borrowers in the first quarter, 39 percent more than a year ago, according to data provided to The Wall Street Journal by credit bureau Equifax. That's the highest total since 2008, around the time of the financial crisis.

Borrowers with FICO or Equifax Risk credit scores below 660 are generally deemed subprime.

Newsmax TV: Check Out Newsmax TV Live! We’re Online 24/7 — Go Here Now

They often have skipped debt payments, endured foreclosures, filed for bankruptcy or have no credit history.

"Lenders in general have really saturated the higher-credit-quality market," Randy Hopper, vice president of consumer lending at Navy Federal Credit Union, the country's largest, told the Journal.

"So it is only natural that as they look for growth opportunities, they expand downward."

As banks struggle for revenue, they hope that subprime borrowers can provide it. These borrowers tend to pay higher-than-average interest rates, providing plenty of cash to banks as long as they make their minimum payments.

But remember that the 2008-09 financial crisis began with the souring of subprime mortgage loans, so danger may be lurking.

Dimitri Papadimitriou sounds the alarm for consumer debt in The (U.K.) Guardian. "The debt held by American households is rising ominously," he writes.

"Unless our economic policies change, that debt balloon, powered by radical income inequality, is going to become the next bust."

Newsmax TV: Check Out Newsmax TV Live! We’re Online 24/7 — Go Here Now

Related Articles:

• CardHub Study: Credit Card Data Offer Mixed Signals
• Consumer Credit Surges on Increased Credit Card Use