National City’s CEO said in a conference call that things will look better in the quarters ahead at the nation’s eighth largest bank.

“We would expect to be in the black in future quarters” in mortgage banking, Daberko said in an interview. “Mortgage banking, ex-hedging, actually made 5 cents in the quarter. We think, actually, mortgage banking ought to trend upward over the rest of the year, outside hedging.”

His comments come as the company said profits were off 30 percent in the first quarter, largely due to sluggish performance in the company’s mortgage banking operations.

National City Corp., a big U.S. Midwest regional bank, on Monday said first-quarter profit fell a larger-than-expected 30 percent, hurt by exposure to subprime mortgages and rising credit losses. Net income for Cleveland-based National City fell to $319.2 million, or 50 cents per share, from $458.8 million, or 74 cents, a year earlier. Excluding items, profit was 52 cents per share, 8 cents below the average analyst forecast, Reuters Estimates said.