Published: Tuesday, 4 Aug 2009 | 3:54 AM ET

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner issued a stern warning punctuated with expletives to U.S. regulators to end turf battles and show support for President Barack Obama's plan to overhaul financial regulation, a person familiar with the situation said on Monday.

AP Timothy Geithner

At a tense, hour-long meeting on Friday, Geithner told Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Chairman Sheila Bair to end recent public criticism of the plan and stop airing concerns over their potential loss of authority.

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the meeting, said that Geithner vented frustration over the plan's slow progress and told regulators that "enough is enough".

Citing people familiar with the meeting, the newspaper also said that the Treasury Secretary used obscenities and took an aggressive stance in his dressing down of the regulators.

A Treasury Department spokesman, Andrew Williams, said Geithner was resolute in his message.

"We planned this meeting as a venue to deliver a tough message to regulators that we should work together to get reform done - and focus less on protecting turf." Williams said.

Spokespersons for the Fed, the SEC and the FDIC did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Obama in June unveiled a financial regulatory overhaul, sometimes called the biggest since the 1930s. Among other things, the plan would give the Fed added powers, award the government more power to break up troubled companies, and create a new agency to oversee consumer finance.

Many major banks and industry trade groups however have criticized the plan, as have some regulators wary that any redistribution of power would reduce their own.

Even though the regulators are viewed as independent of the White House, the Journal said Geithner told attendees that the administration and Congress set policy.

It also said the Treasury Secretary, without singling out officials, raised concerns about regulators who have questioned the wisdom of giving the Fed more power.

Schapiro and Bair have argued that more authority should be shared among a council of regulators.

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