Timothy Geithner Told Advisers 'Fuck The Banks': Report

Some have criticized outgoing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for not being tough enough on the banks during and after the financial crisis.

A new report from the Washington Post seems to counter those claims.

"Fuck the banks," Geithner reportedly told his advisers at a meeting where they presented banks' complaints about the Obama administration's push for new financial regulations, according to anonymous sources cited by WaPo, which doesn't specify exactly when the meeting took place.

Critics such as ex-TARP watchdog Neil Barofsky and ex-FDIC chair Sheila Bair point to instances when Geithner should have taken a harsher stance with big banks.

Barofsky has called out the Treasury Department for its poor implementation of foreclosure rescue programs that seem to favor banks over homeowners. Others have said that Geithner should have used the financial crisis as an opportunity to break up the big banks that helped create it.

This is not the first time Geithner's been quoted deploying the F-bomb. He told Barofsky in 2009, according to Barofsky's recent book Bailout: "Neil, I have been the most fucking transparent secretary of the Treasury in this country's entire fucking history!"

There has been speculation that Geithner, who steps down on Friday, might land at Goldman Sachs or Citigroup after leaving government. But he recently told Politico that for now, he plans to relax and spend time with his family. Geithner also told the Washington Post that his reasons for working in public service "are very powerful and are very enduring."