Wachovia boosts Q4 loan loss provision estimate

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wachovia Corp WB.N said on Wednesday in a federal filing that it now sees a loan loss provision in the fourth quarter of about $1 billion in excess of charge-offs, sending its shares lower in early trading.

The bank said it had previously seen a loan loss provision in the fourth quarter of $500 million to $600 million in excess of charge-offs.

Wachovia said it was making the filing prior to a presentation at a Goldman Sachs conference on Wednesday.

The company said it had previously told investors in its third-quarter report that valuation losses totaled $1.34 billion pretax for the period ending September 30. It also disclosed further estimated valuation losses in the month of October of an estimated $1.1 billion pretax.

The losses included commercial and consumer mortgage, leveraged finance and structured products, including subprime-backed mortgage securities, according to the Charlotte, North Carolina-bank's filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In early trading, Wachovia's shares fell $1.17 or 2.8 percent to $40.78 on the New York Stock Exchange, the top decliner among major banks.

(Reporting by Ed Leefeldt, editing by Maureen Bavdek and Dave Zimmerman)