Shares in IndyMac Bancorp Inc. dropped early Monday after the bank reported a first-quarter loss and said it won’t be profitable soon.

IndyMac posted a loss of $184 million ($2.27 per share), compared to a profit of $52.4 million (70 cents) in the same period a year earlier.

“I am confident that IndyMac will be a survivor” and that the lender “will return to prosperity with many fewer competitors,” IndyMac’s Chief Executive Michael Perry said.

IndyMac recorded provisions for future loan losses of $249 million during the quarter as well as $40 million in losses from discontinued operations. The Pasadena-based holding company for IndyMac Bank produced $9.6 billion in new loans. Charge-offs nearly doubled to $334 million from $179 million in the prior quarter.

Perry said that IndyMac will defer interest payments on trust preferred securities and suspend dividends on most stock, calling it “the most efficient and least-dilutive means of generating capital.”

IndyMac canceled a $1-per-share annual dividend on its common shares earlier this year, also citing capital needs for the cut.

IndyMac said it expects “substantially declining quarterly losses for the remainder of 2008 but does not foresee return to profitability until home-price declines deteriorate.”

“Our overall business, excluding discontinued activities, will be close to break even by the third quarter and have a small profit for the second half of 2008,” Perry said. He also said that he expects a net loss from discontinued operations to drop to about $23 million by the fourth quarter.

Perry said early this month that the company is making progress in returning to profitability.

“Some people have questioned IndyMac’s survivability in the current environment,” he said. “I am here to tell you that I believe we have turned a corner.”

Shares in IndyMac were down 8 percent to $3.14 in early trading Monday.