Citi, the US banking giant hit by the global credit crunch, will start to shed hundreds of billions of assets, such as mortgage-backed investments, as part of chief executive Vikram Pandit’s drive to revive the bank’s fortunes, Dow Jones has reported.

The US banking giant has a substantial private banking arm but the Dow Jones report did not say if this part of the bank will be affected by any restructuring programme.

Mr Pandit, who met with stock analysts late last week, confirmed that the bank plans a heavy programme of asset disposals, Dow Jones said. Analysts from Credit Suisse say that Citi plans to shed hundreds of billions of dollars worth of assets to support a turnaround that could take two years.

Citigroup has announced it will shrink its mortgage-loan holdings by $45 billion, or 20 per cent, and combine all its mortgage operations into a single unit.

The firm also plans to sell its stake in Japanese mutual fund company Nikko Asset Management and has already sold eight consumer banking branches in Texas and closed several underperforming branches across the US.

Citi also added Gary Crittenden as its financial chief and tweaked its risk management operation. More changes to the company's leadership team are expected before the 9 May investor meeting, Dow Jones quoted analysts as saying.

Citi wrote down more than $20 billion in assets tied to mortgages last year as a result of the US credit crisis. Analysts have warned the company may see up to another $18 billion in writedowns during the first quarter.