Former Bermuda Monetary Authority boss Matthew Elderfield has admitted that his current job of regulating Ireland’s banking sector has turned out to be even tougher than he expected.Mr Elderfield took a 50 percent pay cut when he left the post of chief executive officer of the BMA to become the financial regulator at the Central Bank of Ireland a year ago.When he left he was well aware that the Irish banking sector had been battered during the global economic crisis, with huge exposure to the country’s dramatic property slump.Since then, severe national debt problems have emerged in several European Union countries, including Ireland, forcing governments to take austerity measures and exacerbating the banks’ problems.In an interview with the Irish Independent’s Laura Noonan, published yesterday, Mr Elderfield said: “It’s a more difficult situation. I knew that the job was going to be difficult in terms of the banks but I didn’t anticipate what was going to happen in the sovereign debt crisis.”Mr Elderfield is highly regarded in Bermuda for his work in beefing up the BMA and setting it on the road to equivalency with the European Union’s new Solvency II rules for insurers.In Ireland, he is regarded as “the tough new sheriff”, according to the Independent, an image that is probably linked to his move to put major Irish insurer Quinn Insurance into administration last March.“It showed we were serious about supervision in Ireland,” Mr Elderfield said. And he dismissed the suggestion that the move was more about bolstering Elderfield’s reputation than sorting out an insurer.“Absolutely not,” he said. “The individual case is what drove it. It did send a signal to the market, but if there wasn’t a breach (of solvency) we wouldn’t have moved.”Apart from dealing with the Irish banking crisis, Mr Elderfield’s day-to-day demands include reviewing Ireland’s 440 credit unions, enhancing regulatory practices and keeping the country up to speed with international regulatory developments.He wants to hire 200 extra staff to help with enforcement and to double maximum fines from from 5 million euros to 10 million euros in forthcoming legislation.The article concludes with a quote that suggests Mr Elderfield is standing up well to the rigors of the job.“I’m well-paid, it’s an interesting job, and I’m not complaining,” he said. “I complain to my wife sometimes and she tells me, don’t get ahead of yourself Elderfield, time to do the washing up.”