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.
