Quinn Insurance founder Sean Quinn is plotting a return to the market by launching a new insurer called Q2, according to reports.

The new insurance business will rival Quinn Insurance which fell into administration last year and later bought by US insurer Liberty Mutual and Anglo Irish Bank in a joint venture.

The Irish Independent said Quinn, along with a number of former business executives, has acquired a Malta-based insurance licence which will allow him to return to the market in the coming months.

It is believed the new venture will be headed up by Sean Quinn Jnr and a former Quinn executive Dave Mackey.

A number of former executives from the Quinn Group have been secretly working on the project for months and are believed to have developed a highly efficient software program, the report said.

The licence to run an insurance company was acquired from the Malta government about four years ago by the Cavan-based building firm P Elliot & Co which intended to use it themselves, before the downturn.

It is believed this licence has now been transferred to Q2 and that a deal has been done with Swiss Re to buy re-insurance.

The new business Q2 will be based in the border town of Belturbet, Co Cavan.

Industry sources believe it could take a significant 'chunk' of the Quinn Insurance business, the paper said.