The loss is equal to $2.45 a share.

National City Corp. on Thursday reported a $1.76 billion loss for the second quarter, as mortgage loans soured and it took a big charge related to previous acquisitions. The loss was equal to $2.45 a share.

Net interest income for the second quarter was down to $1.02 billion from $1.07 billion.

During the second quarter of 2007, the Cleveland-based bank reported net income of $347 million, or 60 cents a share.

For the first half of this year, the bank's net loss totaled $1.9 billion, or $2.86 per share, compared with net income of $666 million, or $1.09 per share, during the first two quarters of 2007. Net interest income fell to $2.09 billion from $2.2 billion.

National City officials attributed the quarterly and year-to-date losses primarily to "actions to increase loss reserves on liquidating mortgage loan portfolios and a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $1.1 billion related to previous acquisitions."

"We have more than enough capital to see us through this period," National City's chief executive, Peter Raskind, said in a conference call with the media. "We have no intention or plan or need at this point to raise capital."

Over the past year, mortgages have increasingly defaulted, forcing banks to set aside more cash to cover current and future losses. National City was no exception as its geographic footprint - mainly the Midwest and Florida - has been among the hardest hit by the downturn in the housing cycle.

The bank's results included a $1.1 billion goodwill impairment charge related to previous acquisitions. Goodwill typically reflects the value of an intangible asset such as a brand name.

Excluding the goodwill charge, the loss was 94 cents per share, according to a National City spokeswoman.

That compares with a loss of 26 cents per share, on average, expected by analysts polled by Thomson Financial. Analysts typically exclude one-time charges from their estimates.

The bank increased its provision for loan losses, more than tenfold, to $1.59 billion, from $145 million last year. Loan-loss provisions cover both current-quarter charge-offs and additional reserves held to cover future losses. Charge-offs are loans written off as not being repaid.

The bank said the larger provision reflects additional loss reserves for loans secured by residential real estate. The reserves include a $478 million supplemental reserve on loan holdings it is liquidating, including construction loans to individuals, and broker-sourced nonprime mortgage and home equity loans.

Analysts widely agreed the provision was higher than expected, and one of the primary causes for the quarterly loss.

"Reported earnings per share was much worse than we expected, due to a loan loss provision that was more than three times higher than we anticipated, a steep decline in net interest margin and much higher non-performing assets and net charge-offs in the quarter," RBC Capital Markets analyst Gerard Cassidy wrote in a research note.

Some analysts reacted favorably.

While the loss was worse than expected, R. Scott Siefers of Sandler O'Neill said "the current capital situation looks over strong" and said National City is "among the strongest banks in the country."

"By no means is the company out of the woods, but we think this quarter should help boost investor confidence in the company's wherewithal to ride out the credit storm," he said.

Mike Mayo of Deutsche Bank said this "looks to us as part cleanup quarter, part continued issue with problem loans, and part taking enough conservatism that the company has a cushion to absorb problems over the next couple years."