The star of Ned Kelly, who sold Baltimore's Mercantile Bankshares to PNC Financial, seemingly continues to rise at troubled Citi. Kelly had been head of global banking at the New York financial giant up until March, when he was named chief financial officer to replace Gary Crittenden. Now Crittenden, who became chairman of Citi Holdings, is out. And Kelly is becoming vice chairman. From AP:

Crittenden is leaving the company to spend more time with his family and pursue other business interests, Citigroup said in a statement.

Aside from his departure, Citigroup said Edward Kelly, who had been serving as CFO since Crittenden switched positions, will become vice chairman of Citigroup. Kelly will take on responsibilities for strategy and mergers and acquisitions in the new position.

John Gerspach will assume the role of CFO, becoming Citigroup's third CFO this year. Gerspach previously served as controller and chief accounting officer at Citigroup.

Hard to tell what it means. Often promotion to vice chairman is actually a demotion, a way of putting out to pasture whom you don't want to fire. The CFO slot at Citi is still one of the most prestigous positions in finance. But if Kelly really does have power to steer strategy instead of just sitting in meetings where strategy is discussed, he'll be a player.