I'M A BANKER-GET ME OUT OF HERE...TARP RECIPIENTS ARE SCREAMING TO GET OUT FROM FEDERAL "HELP"

"NO THANKS, DON'T NEED YOUR HELP ANYMORE", THE BANKS WHO GOT TARP MONEY ARE SAYING TO THE GOVERNMENT.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and three of the nation’s largest banks repaid $44.7 billion to the U.S. Treasury’s bailout fund in a step toward ridding themselves of government restrictions on lending and pay.

JPMorgan repaid $25 billion, Morgan Stanley gave back $10 billion, Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp refunded $6.6 billion and Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based BB&T Corp. paid $3.1 billion, the companies said today in separate statements.

The banks are among 10 companies that last week said they would repay a total of $68 billion to the Troubled Asset Relief Program after Treasury approved the payments. Banks have unveiled plans to raise more than $100 billion in capital, and financial stocks have climbed in the past three months on signs the global credit contraction is easing.

“Our strong capital position allowed us to pay back TARP in a very short amount of time,” BB&T Chief Executive Officer Kelly King said in the statement. “We’ve repaid the government, and now we have a singular focus on the business of serving our clients.”

JPMorgan, U.S. Bancorp and BB&T also notified the Treasury of their intent to repurchase warrants issued under the program.

New York-based JPMorgan fell 70 cents, or 2 percent, to $32.80 at 12:08 p.m. in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange. BB&T fell 42 cents, or 1.9 percent, to $21.81, U.S. Bancorp rose 6 cents to $17.92, and Morgan Stanley fell 59 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $27.51.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., American Express Co., Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Capital One Financial Corp., Northern Trust Corp. and State Street Corp. also said last week they would repay TARP.

Warrant Purchases

The Treasury bought preferred stock and demanded warrants - - the right to buy common stock at a set price for 10 years -- so taxpayers could benefit from any rebound. Typically, the warrants equaled 15 percent of the TARP capital.

JPMorgan and seven other banks may spend about $3.88 billion this quarter related to dividend and interest costs to repay the government, Rochdale Securities analyst Richard Bove said yesterday.

JPMorgan will incur the highest cost, $1.48 billion, to repay TARP, Bove wrote in a note. Morgan Stanley’s cost will be $1.02 billion, he said.

Banks are repaying TARP almost eight months after then- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, seeking to quell market panic that followed the Sept. 15 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., provided nine banks with $125 billion from the $700 billion TARP fund passed by Congress.

The government’s stress test of the 19 largest banks last month determined that U.S. Bancorp and BB&T didn’t need any additional capital.

Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, and Citigroup Inc. weren’t among banks Treasury cleared to repay TARP. They each accepted $45 billion in U.S. aid. Wells Fargo & Co., the nation’s largest mortgage lender and the recipient of $25 billion in government aid, also wasn’t on the list.