NEW YORK, April 3 (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc's former head of global credit cards, Steven Freiberg, is stepping down, an internal memo said on Friday, the latest long-serving executive to leave as the bank struggles to return to profitability.

Freiberg, 52, has relinquished day-to-day oversight of the credit card business, but will still work with the bank through a transition period, the memo said.

He has been with the company for nearly three decades. Many analysts expected him to be likely leave after a recent reorganization left him in charge of local consumer finance businesses in Citi Holdings, the portion of Citigroup where bad assets are housed, as well as businesses the bank is looking to sell or wind down.

Freiberg is one of a stream of Citigroup veterans in leaving after the bank has recorded more than $85 billion of writedowns and credit losses since the middle of 2007. Antonio Cacorino, co-head of global investor sales, left last year, as did investment banking head Michael Klein.

A Citigroup spokesman confirmed the authenticity of the memo.

(Reporting by Dan Wilchins; editing by Gunna Dickson)