Zoltan Pozsar says he wants to offer plumbing services for institutional investors. The former Credit Suisse star economist is back with a «cryptic» research company.

Using the crisis as an opportunity! A few months ago, Credit Suisse lost a rock star in the financial world admired by Wall Street professionals and social media financial nerds alike. Now former Credit Suisse icon Zoltan Pozsar is back with a new firm.

The Hungarian-born Pozsar is known for his prosaic, eloquent, and astute financial and market analyses, and enjoys a level of cult status. Because of these qualities and whose writings outline what the future of global finance might look like, he has been compared to HG Wells and Jules Verne.

Cryptic as Ever

For many traders, fund professionals, and portfolio managers, his texts are required reading. His literary bent is also evident in the cryptic name Pozsar has chosen for his research firm: Ex Uno Plures, translating into «out of one, many» he explains in the «Bloomberg» podcast «Odd Lots» (behind paywall). It's meant to sum up two ideas.

First, it represents what his research will focus on: the increasingly fragmented topography of international financial markets and the daily workings of the dollar system. Second, the name is the inverse of e pluribus unum, «out of many, one,» which can be read on all US dollar notes and coins. It describes his vision of a «Bretton Woods III» that Pozsar began developing last year,  a theory that the dollar will play a far less dominant role in the coming decades.

Plumbing for Institutional Investors

He will provide analysis to institutional investors and advise them on financial market «plumbing,» as he has always done, the interest rate strategist said. His reputation has grown after he accurately predicted the turmoil in the US repo market in 2019, and his new research is likely to quickly gain a large following.

Pozsar will focus on two publication series, he explains. The first will be "Money, Banks and Bases," as it's called on the Hungarian domain of his website, and says it's the publication that most people will identify him with, he said.

Two Main Directions

He said he will look closely at what the big banks are doing, what they have in their portfolios, and where the balance sheet constraints are. He said it will be a research report on the "day-to-day functioning of the dollar system as we know it today."

In the second publication, «Money and World Order,» he plans to track how his Bretton Woods III idea is evolving. Topics such as de-dollarization, the remonetization of gold, and the use of digital central bank currencies to build a new financial system are on the agenda.

Always Good Conversation

He's not always been right with his analyses in the past, which has sometimes led to him being accused of «financial fiction.» However, his influence and charisma in the financial world are undisputed, and his analyses are always thought-provoking.

His popularity earned him a hashtag on Twitter and nicknames such as «the oracle of market analysis.» When he departed Credit Suisse, he left behind an online fan base eagerly awaiting his next move. In May, he attended a conference at the New York Fed, but declined questions about his plans, finews.com reported.

Pozsar moved to the US in 2002 and worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the US Treasury, among others. In 2015, he moved to Credit Suisse as Global Head of Short-Term Interest Rate Strategy, which he left this year before its collapse.