Parties agree on parliamentary investigators into banks

Shoppers pass a branch of Barclays Bank in west London on July 2, 2012.

LONDON (Reuters) - The government and main opposition have agreed on who will participate in a parliamentary inquiry into the professional and ethical standards of bankers, documents from parliament showed on Friday, although one lawmaker described the process as a "whitewash".

The government has come under pressure to scrutinise the bank sector, particularly since last month when Barclays was fined for trying to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), used worldwide as a benchmark for prices on about $350 trillion of derivatives and other financial products.

The MPs from the British assembly's lower house, the Commons, put forward for the inquiry are Andrew Tyrie, who chairs parliament's influential cross-party Treasury Select Committee, and fellow committee members Mark Garnier, Andy Love, John Thurso and Pat McFadden.

"The recent scandals demonstrate the need for higher standards in banking," said Tyrie, who was proposed as the chairman of the banking commission.

"It is the fact that so many appear to have got off scot-free that really sticks in the gullet of the electorate."

The Commons has yet to approve the membership list, said a spokesman for the house. It is likely to do so, however, as the nominations have been agreed between all three major parties.

The commission will also have members from the Lords, the upper house, the spokesman added, and its proposed powers include the ability to summon people and call for records, examine witnesses on oath and appoint specialist advisers.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said: "It will have powers and resources to do a thorough job."

But Treasury Select Committee member John Mann, who was not nominated for the banking commission, called the inquiry "a total whitewash".

"We need to get to the bottom of this scandal, and I'm therefore setting up my own inquiry into this dreadful mess," he said in a statement, without elaborating.

(Reporting by Mohammed Abbas and Olesya Dmitracova; Editing by Hugh Lawson)