LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - A five-person panel will on Friday set out its remit for a year-long probe into whether Britain's banks are too powerful.
Here are profiles of the five commissioners:
JOHN VICKERS
The Oxford academic who is chairing the commission is well versed in the world of banking and consumer affairs after chairing the Office of Fair Trading from 2000 to 2005 and serving as a member of the Bank of England's interest-rate setting Monetary Policy Committee from 1998 to 2000.
Vickers, 52, studied at Oxford University and went on to have a brief spell as a financial analyst at oil major Shell, before becoming one of Oxford's most eminent academics. A stern-looking bespectacled figure, he is warden of the university's All Souls College.
CLARE SPOTTISWOODE
Having come to public attention during the 1990s when she oversaw the further break-up and privatisation of Britain's gas industry as director general of regulator Ofgas, Spottiswoode, 57, also has experience of consumer financial affairs from her role as a policyholder advocate for insurer Aviva.
Spottiswoode was educated at Cheltenham Ladies College and gained degrees in maths and economics from Cambridge and Yale universities. She is a director at Tullow Oil and security systems company G4S.
BILL WINTERS
Winters quit U.S. bank JPMorgan a year ago after six years as co-chief executive of the investment bank arm, heading up the European business from London.
He is a well-known figure in the City of London and is likely to be seen as a supporter of investment banking, although he has spoken out about greed in the industry.
A dual UK/U.S. citizen, he joined JPMorgan in 1983 and jointly ran businesses across sales, trading, research, capital raising and lending. He left after a rival was marked out as the bank's probable next CEO.
Winters, who received an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania after studying international relations at Colgate University, has been linked to several other top jobs and is a member of the market-monitoring group of the lobby group Institute of International Finance.
MARTIN TAYLOR
Having served as chief executive of British bank Barclays Plc from 1994 to 1998, Taylor has been chairman of Swiss agrochemicals firm Syngenta since 2005.
Educated at Eton and Oxford University -- where he switched from English to Chinese in his first year -- he worked as a journalist for Reuters before joining the Financial Times in 1978, heading the Lex commentary team. He joined UK textiles firm Courtaulds in 1982 and became CEO of Courtaulds Textiles from 1987 to 1993.
He took the CEO seat at Barclays aged 41 at a time of internal strife and proceeded to trim the business and return cash to shareholders. His tenure was marked by problems at investment bank arm BZW and a perception that he disliked investment banking. Much of BZW was sold and the rump debt-focused business renamed Barclays Capital under the leadership of Bob Diamond, who will take over as Barclays CEO next year.
After Barclays, Taylor became chairman of retailer W.H.Smith from 1999 to 2003 and an international adviser to U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs from 1999 to 2005.
MARTIN WOLF
Wolf is associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times newspaper and has voiced a need for structural change in banking.
After studying at Oxford University he joined the World Bank in 1971 and has been at the FT since 1987. His awards include the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2000 for services to financial journalism. His books include "Why Globalization Works" and "Fixing Global Finance".
(Compiled by Steve Slater and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by David Holmes)