James Rohr, chief executive of PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (PNC), said Thursday that early stage delinquencies among his bank's loan books "began to flatten" in the second quarter.

He made the comments to analysts during a conference call to discuss PNC's second quarter earnings report.

PNC's Chief Financial Richard Johnson said the company's expects its provision for loan losses to remain flat in coming quarters. PNC posted a second-quarter provision of $1.1 billion.

"I don't have any reason to believe [future provisions] will get substantially better," said Johnson, "nor do I have reason to believe they'll get substantially worse."

Johnson also said PNC expects a fourth-quarter after-tax gain of $400 million to $500 million related to its investment stake in asset manager BlackRock Inc. (BLK)

-By Marshall Eckblad, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2156; marshall.eckblad@dowjones.com