Whether the timing of the Financial Regulator's application to take over management of Quinn Insurance was part of the deliberate choreography of last week's political and economic danse macabre, or whether the move was motivated by the urgency of the insurer's alleged lack of solvency, one message was loud and clear: the Financial Regulator means business. At last.

A full hearing of the regulator's decision to seek High Court approval to take over management of Quinn Insurance, with whom nearly a million Irish people have house, car or health cover, will be heard on 12 April. It's then all the facts about alleged regulatory breaches and the company's ability to play fast and loose with required solvency levels will emerge. But the regulator clearly feels he has grounds to go in – and go in hard – a big, welcome change in Irish corporate governance.

Quinn Insurance has been ordered to stop taking on new business in the UK – where 60% of its insurance business is currently traded. Even if the group successfully plugs the €448m black hole discovered in its books, the regulator has signalled plans to fight to keep the insurer in administration because of its concerns over the way it has been run.

Sean Quinn, as is his right, has vigorously denied problems in the company. He says it is more profitable than ever. Yet questions have to be asked about his "my name is my bond" assurances. He has made similar declarations on many occasions before, usually when his business methods, business model or managerial probity are questioned.

Sean Quinn may claim this is the biggest mistake in corporate history, but two years ago, both he and Quinn Insurance were hit with the biggest corporate fine in history.

In October 2008, the previous regulator fined Sean Quinn €200,000 and Quinn Insurance €3.2m for failing to disclose a loan taken out to buy his Anglo Irish shares, a loan which depleted the insurer's reserves.

The new regulator is similarly vexed. According to court papers lodged at last week's hearing, the regulator was worried about the "non-disclosure" of guarantees on reserves, the "incorrect calculation of solvency and reserves" and the "systems and controls" that allowed the guarantees to go unreported. A business plan presented in response was deemed "exceptionally disappointing".

Matthew Elderfield's blunt list of management failings sounds depressingly familiar. Similar failings pockmark the Nama landscape, a swirling wilderness of appalling governance within the banks, massive loans agreed without any real guarantees (over €1bn of which is so worthless, Nama won't even touch it) and unbelievable pyramid-scheme goings-on in Anglo Irish Bank.

But unlike with the banks of the past, Quinn Insurance has been told to follow the rules or get out of the game. Unfortunately, Sean Quinn's response has been pure Celtic Tiger throwback – a very public display of contempt for the rules and the referee. Rules are for the little people.

Last week, he tried to go over the head of the independent judgement of the regulator and wrote to every member of the cabinet as well as the leaders of Fine Gael and Labour demanding that they intervene in the legal process to have the action "rescinded immediately". He even telephoned some ministers, though none returned his call. He did another big television interview.

His trump card is that enforcing rules to protect the interests of policyholders "endangers 5,500 jobs in Ireland unless immediately reversed", something nobody wants. Some TDs, particularly those in Cavan and Monaghan who are concerned about the jobs of their constituents, have jumped to Quinn's defence. But to his credit, finance minister Brian Lenihan has publicly backed his new regulator. That sort of pressure may have worked before. But Elderfield is showing that rules are not there as window dressing to conceal a wild west financial services sector. They are there to protect the consumer and, ultimately, the country.

Quinn made a lot last week of "the Quinn name" being his bond. But insurance cover has to be underpinned by more than personal assurances. It has to underpinned by a lot more than cash reserves too, which, as Aer Lingus shows, can run out very quickly indeed.

We are now witnessing the rehabilitation of the financial regulator, not just in the decisive action taken over Quinn Insurance, but also with the strict new banking rules unveiled as the first Nama loans went through.

Thank you very much, Matthew Elderfield. We hope to hear an awful lot more of you.