Who's who of banking watchdog

Published on Sunday 10 April 2011 20:18

Sir John Vickers, chairman

Sir John has a wealth of experience in competition issues, having headed the Office of Fair Trading for five years. He also acted as chief economist at the Bank of England and a member of the rate-setting monetary policy committee from 1998 to 2000. He initially made his name through an unconventional analysis of privatisation in 1985, in which he argued that competition and effective regulation was more important than ownership in seeking to improve the efficiency of companies.

Clare Spottiswoode

Ms Spottiswoode is a mathematician and economist by training, but is best known for her role as director general of utilities regulator Ofgas between 1993 and 1998, where she oversaw the transformation of the gas industry. She also acted as the policyholder advocate for insurer Aviva, responsible for ensuring that around one million with-profits policyholders received a fair share of the 5bn to 6bn inherited estate.

Martin Taylor

Mr Taylor, a former journalist, ran Barclays for more than four years after being appointed chief executive aged just 41, then the bank's youngest-ever boss. He left the banking giant in 1998 with his departure coming amid speculation of a boardroom rift. He went on to act as an adviser to investment bank Goldman Sachs and was also previously chairman of retail chain WH Smith.

Martin Wolf

As associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, Mr Wolf has won many prizes for his journalism. He began his career at the World Bank in 1971, acting as a senior economist for ten years at its division of international trade, and has been at the FT since 1987. Mr Wolf is the author of several books and numerous articles on global economics and political economy, including Why Globalisation Works.

Bill Winters

Mr Winters was co-chief executive of investment banking at JP Morgan until last year - a role he had held since 2003. He joined the bank in 1983, holding a number of management roles. Mr Winters, who moved from New York to London in 1992, had joint responsibility for the firm's global businesses across sales, trading, research, capital raising and lending.