Photo by James Sanna | Commercial Record staff

Christopher J. Swift, the chairman and CEO of The Hartford Financial Services Group, will join Citizens Bank’s board of directors next year.

Providence-based Citizens Financial Group has appointed Swift as one of two new members on its board. Swift will begin his tenure on Feb. 1.

Joining Swift as a new member is Lee Alexander, the executive vice president and chief information officer for The Clearing House, which operates core payments system infrastructure in the United States, including a real-time payment system.

Swift will be on the board’s risk committee, and Alexander will be on the board’s audit committee.

“We are pleased to welcome both Chris and Lee to our board of directors,” Citizens Bank’s Chairman and CEO Bruce Van Saun said in a statement. “Chris is a standout CEO in the financial services industry, with significant experience in transformation and positioning a venerable company for the future. Lee brings tremendous insights into new technologies, cybersecurity, data analytics and payments gleaned from his experience at The Clearing House and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. We are fortunate to attract such talented directors as we continue our journey to drive shareholder value and become a top performing bank.”

Current board member Howard (Hoddy) Hanna will retire from the board after his current term expires at the end of April. Hanna, who is chair of Pittsburgh-based real estate company Hanna Holdings, is retiring due to mandatory age considerations under the bank’s corporate governance guidelines, the bank said in the statement.

Citizens board will increase in size to 14 directors on Feb. 1 before dropping back to 13 directors in April at the annual shareholder’s meeting.

“I would like to thank Hoddy for the fine contribution he’s made to Citizens over the years,” Van Saun said. “We’ve all very much enjoyed working with him and wish him well in life’s next chapter.”

Citizens has more than 30 branches throughout Connecticut.