Treasury lets 10 firms repay $68B in loans from gov’t

10 U.S. banks that received assistance from the government at the height of the financial crisis will be allowed to pay back $68 billion on those loans, the Treasury Department announced Tuesday.

“These repayments are an encouraging sign of financial repair, but we still have work to do,” Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in a statement announcing the repayment of money in the Capital Purchase Program (CPP).

The allowed repayments come after the banks were able to raise significant amounts of private capital to back their operations, the Treasury said.

The repaid money will go to the Treasury’s general account, where it will help reduce borrowing and the national debt. The government has benefited from $4.5 billion in dividends to date from their investments under the CPP — $1.8 billion of which came from the 10 financial institutions that will be allowed to begin repayment.

The Treasury did not name the 10 financial institutions that would be allowed to repay their loans, but among the expected firms are heavyweights JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley.