SunTrust on Tuesday completed the sale of a coveted stake in Coca-Cola that the Atlanta-based bank has owned for almost 90 years, allowing the bank to prop up its capital position after mounting mortgage losses led to sharply weaker second-quarter earnings for the bank.

News of the SunTrust disposal came as the deepening housing slump and slowing economy weighed on second-quarter earnings for banks including North Carolina’s Wachovia, Ohio’s Fifth Third and KeyCorp and Alabama’s Regions Financial.