UPDATE 1-MetLife CFO says earnings will take time to recover

(Adds CFO comment, background, financial detail, share price)

NEW YORK May 13 (Reuters) - MetLife Inc (MET.N) Chief Financial Officer William Wheeler said on Wednesday the company, the largest U.S. life insurer, will need time to regain its earnings power.

Speaking at a financial services conference, Wheeler said how quickly the New York-based company's earnings bounce back will depend on when certain asset classes begin to recover.

He added that he was not banking on a full recovery in the next year.

Over the long range, Wheeler forecast MetLife's operating earnings potential as between $4.24 and $4.97 a share, based on the current number of outstanding shares.

The figure is below the $6.25 a share in operating earnings that MetLife reported in 2007, the year before the U.S. housing downturn fully set in, sending stock markets into a nosedive.

Life insurers such as MetLife and its next biggest rival, Prudential Financial (PRU.N), are particularly susceptible to what happens in the credit markets because the industry as a whole hold trillions of dollars of investments, and also sells retirement annuities that can be linked to market performance.

In the first quarter, MetLife posted a quarterly net loss of $574 million.

Operating profit, the measure most closely watched by Wall Street, in the quarter was 20 cents a share, 14 cents below analysts' average expectation.

Wheeler said the quarterly operating result reflected ongoing turmoil in financial markets, including accelerated deferred acquisition costs, or DAC, tied to falling stock market values.

Although Wheeler said MetLife had "got that (DAC) back and more so far in the second quarter," other areas have yet to fall into place.

The company was also hit by losses on private equity investments and is a large holder of commercial mortgages and commercial mortgage investments.

MetLife has a healthy capital cushion, Wheeler said, but it nevertheless has been cutting costs to make sure it is in the best shape to weather the economic recession.

He said MetLife was making "good progress" on a "Operation Excellence," a plan to cut annual costs by $400 million by 2010.

Wheeler added that while he didn't like to brag about it, the insurer had cut its U.S. workforce by 1,000 positions this year.

MetLife shares closed down 10.6 percent, or $3.42, at $28.84 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has traded as low as $11.37 and as high as $65.45 in the last year, according to Reuters data. (Reporting by Lilla Zuill; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)