London’s Office of Fair Trading sure doesn’t pull any punches. How the competition watchdog got both the Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays into its cross-hairs and what’s expected to become of the ongoing investigation. (As a bonus, this story has a twist.)

Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays have been raided by the Office of Fair Trading in the latest example of the competition watchdog’s hardline approach to possible price-fixing. The OFT seized documents and phone records from the banks’ London offices in May as part of an investigation into alleged anti-competitive behaviour over the pricing of loans to professional services firms.

The probe – which Barclays said it triggered by blowing the whistle to the OFT – comes amid high-profile investigations into price-fixing allegations involving supermarkets, consumer goods companies and tobacco groups.

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