ATTEMPTS by tycoon Sean Quinn to remain in control of his insurance business would be met with opposition by the Financial Regulator.

Quinn told RTÉ last week that he could repay his family's €2.8bn debt to Anglo Irish Bank by ring-fencing the profits from the insurance division for the next seven years. That has been taken as a sign that Quinn has reversed an earlier decision to put the insurance division of his flagging empire up for sale.

Not only would he still have to convince the joint administrators and the High Court of the success of the plan, Quinn and his associates would also have to pass the Financial Regulator's fitness and probity tests to resume executive positions within the business.

Those regulations are set to be tightened with stringent new rules being proposed in the Central Bank Reform Bill on who can hold a senior position in a financial institution. It is understood that the regulator's opposition to Quinn Insurance remaining in the hands of the businessman hasn't lessened.

Quinn was hit with a €200,000 fine by the Financial Regulator in 2008 and stepped down from the company's board after it emerged he had taken out unauthorised loans from Quinn Insurance. He has since resigned as chairman of the wider Quinn Group.

"In seven years time – we have a projection to 2017 – we would have enough profit made in the meantime, plus the value of the company in seven years' time would clear 100% of the debt [to Anglo Irish Bank]," he told RTÉ.

Claims by Quinn that the insurer was losing €3m a week since being placed in the hands of the joint administrators were dismissed by sources familiar with company's finances.

Financial Regulator Matthew Elderfield will this week meet with a group of Quinn supporters who want the government to provide a bond to Quinn to meet the solvency shortfall in the company.