Regulators, worried about risks linked to reverse mortgages, plan to issue guidelines. Reverse mortgages let a homeowner borrow without having to make payments until they die, sell the home or fail to pay taxes. But they may pose the same risk as subprime loans, Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan said Monday.

"While reverse mortgages can provide real benefits, they also have some of the same characteristics as the riskiest types of subprime mortgages and that should set off alarm bells," Dugan said at the American Bankers Association conference on compliance issues. "Now is the time to get out in front of this issue before real problems develop."

Dugan said his office will release guidelines. Regulators should establish more rules for borrowers and lenders, including requiring escrows for taxes on reverse mortgages, he said.

Credit delinquencies up

TransUnion, the credit-rating agency, said the ratio of bank card borrowers 90 days or more delinquent on one or more bank cards increased 11 percent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, and rose 9.1 percent over the fourth quarter of 2008.

In related news, borrowing by consumers fell by $15.7 billion in April, among the biggest declines ever, as U.S. households continued to trim spending and put away their credit cards amid the severe recession.

The Federal Reserve's latest report said the April decline was the second-largest ever in dollar terms following March's drop of $16.6 billion. March's decline originally was reported as $11.1 billion, which had been the most on records dating to 1943.