* Parliament passes central bank reform bill
* Bank chief Oddsson loses post
* Iceland PM to name new central bank head on Friday
(Adds detail, background)
REYKJAVIK, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Iceland's parliament passed a bill on Thursday reforming the crisis-hit country's central bank and effectively ousting the bank's chief, who had defied government demands that he step down.
The bill's passage marks the end of a bitter standoff between the new interim government and Sedlabanki chief David Oddsson, a former prime minister seen as both the architect of Iceland's boom and a key figure during its economic downfall.
Lawmakers approved the bill by 33 votes to 18. It changes the structure of the central bank, giving it a leader and a deputy rather than the current three-person board of governors. Oddsson has been the senior member of the board.
The new government, which took power earlier this month after the previous coalition crumbled in the face of massive protests over its handling of the financial crisis, has made reforming the central bank a top priority.
Icelanders, angry at their financial plight, have vilified the man who brought unprecedented prosperity to this small island nation in the north Atlantic, a country of just 320,000.
Many have accused Oddsson of not doing enough to rein in Iceland's fast-charging commercial banks, whose massive debts sowed the seeds of a crisis that wrecked the economy -- the first to collapse as a result of the global financial crisis.
The top banks failed in early October when they could not meet their financial obligations because of the international credit crunch.
That sent the Icelandic crown into a tailspin and the currency effectively stopped trading. It has yet to become a fully functional unit, nearly five months after the crisis began.
Interim Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir demanded on taking office that the central bank's leaders resign, but a defiant Oddsson lashed out at what he labelled government interference with the central bank's independence.
The bill must be signed by the president and formally registered before taking effect, a government spokesman said.
Sigurdardottir said earlier on Thursday she would name an interim head of the central bank and a deputy head on Friday.
Oddsson went to work at the central bank on Thursday and, according to the website of the Icelandic daily Morgunbladid, told a midday staff meeting that this was the end of the road for the governors.
The paper said Oddsson again defended his record at the meeting, as he has done since the crisis erupted last October, and that staff gave him and fellow Governor Eirikur Gudnason a round of applause.
Oddsson's warm reception on his last day at work was in sharp contrast to his treatment in the media and in the streets of Reykjavik over the past few months.