“The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) prohibits credit discrimination on the basis of sex, race, marital status, religion, national origin, age, or receipt of public assistance. Creditors may ask for this information (except religion) in certain situations, but they may not use it to discriminate against you when deciding whether to grant you credit.”
So, in a sense, the credit card companies were required by law to give credit cards to people who never should have had them to begin with.
What I mainly meant was people with little or no verifiable income and pattern of never paying any bills.