Advanta Halts New Credit-Card Lending

From Bloomberg: Advanta Shuts Down Credit-Card Lending Amid Surging Charge-Offs

Advanta Corp., the issuer of credit cards for small businesses, will halt new lending for its 1 million customers next month as the recession causes a surge in loan defaults. ... Advanta said ... charge-offs, or uncollectible debt, reached 20 percent on some cards as of March 31.
...
“We’ll be shutting down accounts for future transaction activities, but many of the customers will maintain balances and pay us off over time,” [Chief Financial Officer Philip Browne] said yesterday in a telephone interview.

Advanta was the 11th-biggest U.S. credit-card issuer at the end of 2008 with about $5 billion in outstanding balances, and the only major lender focused on small business borrowers ...

This is much higher loss rate than for consumer credit cards - the Fed's two year indicative loss rate was 18% to 20% for consumer credit cards - Advanta is seeing that in one year for some cards!