This issue of Finance Matters marks the completion of three years since it was started.

We thank you all its readers and those who contributed to it. To bring out a weekly newsletter has its own challenges. We could not have done this without your help. Thank you.

In a relatively heavily crowded space of NGO newsletters, why another one – we asked ourselves when we thought about Finance Matters. What we figured out was that, there’s nearly none on finance and economy, addressed to common people. 

This was an attempt to bring the seemingly complex issues of finance and economy to common people, give a critical analysis of policy measures taken by the government and banks, and let the audience know the latest in the world of national and international finance and financial institutions.

The responses and the encouragement we received the past three years indicate that we did a little towards that in a modest way. We had shortcomings and we made mistakes. Thank you for pointing those, and correcting us. We learned from our mistakes.

At a time when the government is rapidly changing its economic policies, favouring the corporations and stifling the lives of the common people, particularly the poor; at a time when depositors money is not safe with the mounting non-performing assets and policies like the proposed Financial Sector Development and Regulation (FSDR) Bill; when public sector banks are weakened and attempts are being made to privatise them; when banks are charging depositors for every service they offer and penalise the poor for not maintaining a minimum balance, it’s important that common people be informed about these, and help them towards collectively raising their voices, joining hands with trade unions, people’s movements and civil society organisations, to protect the economy and banking sector. 

We hope Finance Matters will continue to contribute its mite towards this. We will be far more effective if you continue to read and respond, write for Finance Matters, and share the newsletter with others.