The number of major banks involved in the shipping industry has decreased substantially over the last few years. According to Michael Parker, managing director of Citibank, this is just one of many sectors hit by the ongoing consolidation trend in the shipping arena. "Banks can not live on interest margin alone without a substantial rise in spreads. They are having to look for other revenues/fees," said Parker, speaking at the LSE Shipping Finance Conference in London on November 14-15, 2000. Mergers in the banking sector such as Chase and JP Morgan, and Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest, are illustrative of the fever of consolidation that has also spread into the bulk, P&I, classification, ports and e-commerce sectors.