A leading financial analyst warns that lenders may cut the amount of available credit nationwide by as much as $2 trillion in the coming months.

Meredith Whitney of Oppenheimer & Co. predicted that the lenders will scale back so much credit in part because of new accounting rules requiring them to record outstanding loans on their balance sheets, according to the Wall Street Journal. Whitney also cites upcoming regulations that will govern the ways credit card companies can raise interest rates on borrowers.

Lenders have been generally more reluctant to offer new lines of credit in the current environment, and Whitney's forecast of $2 trillion in reduced credit applied to the next 18 months. The Journal cited a recent report she wrote warning of a "dangerous and unprecedented combination" of job losses and tighter access to credit.

The tighter credit standards come at a time of already-rising consumer defaults. A separate report from Fitch Ratings last week found that 60-day delinquencies on credit cards had risen about 24 percent since August, according to the Associated Press, which also noted that as many as one in eight store credit card holders could end up defaulting.

With so much credit on the verge of drying up, consumers can explore other short-term loan options to meet their day to day cash needs.

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