I guess the news is out – I earlier this week resigned from Danske Bank to start my own business. This is what I a couple of days ago wrote about it on Facebook:

After more than 14 years with Danske Bank I have decided to resign from the bank to start my own business.

I plan to build my business around public speaking (I have made a deal with an international speaker agency), commentary and obviously advisory within the area of international economics, financial markets, Emerging Markets and obviously monetary policy.

The decision has been very long under way. I have had a wonderful time at the bank and the bank will always be “my bank”. Everybody who knows me knows to what extent I identify with the Danske Bank brand, but now it is also time to move on.

Today has been a very hectic and emotional day for me and I am very grateful for the very positive response I have got from colleagues and clients of the bank alike to my decision.

I still have contractual obligations with Danske Bank and I will continue to honour these obligations professionally and with the loyalty towards the bank that I always felt and still fell for a couple of months more until I fully throw myself into my new venture.

Thanks to all of my great colleagues at the bank. It has been truly great and you all will always remain my friends. I particularly want to thank my colleagues in Danske Bank Markets and my colleagues in Danske Bank in Poland, Russia and the Baltic States.

Bloomberg has an article on my decision:

Lars Christensen, the head of emerging market research at Danske Bank A/S, is quitting to start his own business as a consultant and public speaker.

Christensen, who spent 14 years at the biggest Danish lender, correctly predicted the downfall of Iceland’s economy two years before the island nation’s three largest banks collapsed in the 2008 global credit crunch, for which he was cited in Michael Lewis’s book “Boomerang.”

Four years ago he started The Market Monetarist, a blog about changes in economic theory in the wake of the “Great Recession,” especially on the role of central banks as they unleashed unprecedented stimulus to rejuvenate stalled growth.

“Since I started my blog, I’ve increasingly felt that the requests from conference organizers concerned areas outside of what I’ve been doing at Danske,” Christensen said by phone from Copenhagen on Thursday. “I’m leaving Danske but not emerging markets.”

Polish tabloid Fakt called Christensen a “Danish vampire,” accusing him of “speculating” against the country’s economy in 2009, when he forecast, also correctly, the zloty’s weakening to a record low. In his latest report from April 21, he predicted the Polish currency to appreciate to 3.95 per euro within three months, compared with 4.025 on Thursday, as the European Central Bank’s bond-buying program pumps cash into higher-yielding assets in eastern Europe.

Peter Kjaergaard Nielsen, a spokesman at Danske, confirmed by phone that Christensen was leaving the bank.

“When you work for a think-tank, you say how the world ought to look and when you’re in markets, you say how it will be,” Christensen said. “I’ve always been somewhere in between.”

Speaker agency: Spealist Speakers (mail: daniel@spealistspeakers.com)