Bank chief executives may have to give up recycling old texts at those interminable business lunches, where they bore the crowds with their never ending appeals for an end to the four pillars policy that precludes mergers among the four largest banks.It isn't happening.Australia's still somewhat fresh Labor cabinet obviously dedicated some time last week to banking policy, given the sequence of announcements by the Treasurer Wayne Swan, yesterday.Swan told parliament yesterday that the government "will maintain the existing Four Pillars policy for the banking sector."The policy dates back to 1991, when an earlier Labor government opted to block the proposed merger between ANZ and National Mutual, giving rise to the tag six pillars (covering the four major banks and two largest life insurance companies). In 1996 the Coalition government revised the policy to apply to the major banks only.Swan didn't bother to provide a rationale for the policy (beyond some blather about "the strength and soundness" of the banking system) or why, in this industry, assessment of the anti-competitive consequences of proposed mergers would not be left to the ACCC.