National City Cuts Jobs

National City Corp. slashed 900 jobs in its mortgage lending unit and cut its quarterly dividend by 49% to $0.21 per share from $0.41 per share. Since August, the bank has eliminated or restricted production of non-agency eligible mortgage loans, reduced staffing by approximately 1,700 positions and exited all broker-based mortgage lending, including shutting down its wholesale mortgage division last week. Combined with the mortgage reductions already in place and those announced last week, the company has reduced headcount by a total of 3,400 positions, the bank said. National City Mortgage said it will continue to originate mortgages through its retail office network and via its 1,400 National City Bank branches in nine states. The bank has hired Goldman Sachs as an advisor to explore ways to raise additional capital. National City said it anticipates mortgage originations in 2008 of approximately $15 billion to $20 billion.