National City booked fifth straight quarter loss, to cut 4,000 jobs

National City Corp, the U.S. Midwest regional bank, posted its fifth straight quarterly loss on Tuesday, hurt by increased reserves for mortgage and real estate construction loan losses.

The Cleveland-based lender also plans to reduce 4,000 jobs, or 14 percent of its workforce, over three years to save $500 million to $600 million annually by 2011.

National City's third-quarter net loss was $729 million, or $5.86 per share, and compared with a loss of $19 million, or 3 cents, a year earlier.

Results reflected a $4.4 billion preferred dividend paid in September as part of a $7 billion capital raising completed in April from Corsair Capital LLC and other investors. After accounting for the preferred stock, its loss would have been 37 cents a share, the bank said.

Analysts on average expected a loss of 37 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates. It was not immediately clear on what basis analysts computed their forecasts.

National City set aside $1.18 billion for loan losses, up from $368 million a year earlier but down from $1.59 billion in the second quarter.

A majority of the increased reserve was tied to a $21 billion portfolio of businesses that the bank is exiting, including broker-sold home equity, subprime and residential construction loans, and automobile, marine and recreational vehicle loans made through dealers. The portfolio was $17 billion three months earlier.