Citigroup is pressing on with its corporate revamp to make the most of its non-core non-bank businesses, announcing that the interim leader for its Citi Holdings unit will stay on.

The New York-based bank appointed on a permanent basis senior manager Mike Corbat as the unit's chief executive officer.

Citi Holdings was created in January to hold the Smith Barney brokerage, various consumer finance businesses, and a special pool of bad assets which are part of the U.S. government’s bank bailout program. Citicorp was created at the same time to house all of the company’s “core” banking businesses.

When both divisions were created in the wake of heavy losses linked to the housing downturn and subsequent lack of investor confidence in complex securities, chief executive Vikram Pandit said Citi Holdings' businesses would have to be run by tightly managing risks and losses while maximizing their value, allowing the banking units to work independently.

Pandit said today that Corbat, will help “accelerate our assessment of strategic opportunities for these business as we also seek to optimize their performance.”

Corbat is a leader with broad familiarity of the firm in his twenty five year career there. His experience includes heading the global banking unit which serves wealthy and super wealthy clients as well as leadership in the unit providing banking services for multinational corporations and financial institutions.

Citi Holdings chairman Gary Crittenden - who has been on the job since late March after a two year tenure as Citigroup’s chief financial officer - praised Corbat today as “terrific business manager,” saying they’ve done “excellent work” in their short time together.

Citi Holdings represents $860 billion in assets, compared to Citicorp’s $1.1 trillion in assets.

Citigroup Vikram pandit