UPDATE 1-Senate panel plans vote on Fed pick Diamond - aide

* Diamond lacks monetary policy experience - Shelby (Adds details on Diamond)

WASHINGTON May 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Banking Committee is likely to vote on Thursday on Federal Reserve nominee Peter Diamond, a committee aide said, marking a third effort to put in place a nominee twice scuttled by Republicans.

The aide said the panel planned to vote on Diamond's nomination along with five other nominees ahead of a committee hearing on financial stability.

Diamond, who won a Nobel economics prize last year, is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor known for his work on behavioral economics. But the top Republican on the committee, Richard Shelby, has criticized Diamond for his lack of monetary policy experience.

Other Republicans have opposed Diamond because he favored the Fed's controversial $600 billion bond-buying program.

The Senate panel is also expected to vote on candidates for the Treasury Department before it questions the top financial regulators, including Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, on the stability of the financial system.

The majority of members on the Senate banking panel must vote in favor of Diamond before other senators can weigh in. (Reporting by Tim Ahmann; Additional reporting by Rachelle Younglai; Editing by James Dalgleish)