Some of the largest US banks and wealth management firms are set to repay billions of dollars of US taxpayers' money they had received to weather the financial crisis.

JP Morgan Chase said it has received permission from the US authorities to repay in full the $25 billion preferred investment it accepted through the Troubled Asset  Relief Programme. Meanwhile, Bank of New York Mellon said it has raised $2.9 billion toward the repurchase of the $3 billion TARP capital investment made by the US government.

According to Bloomberg, 10 institutions have been given US treasury approval to buy back $68 billion of government shares. While the treasury did not name the firms, those concerned – a number of which have private banking operations – are thought to include Morgan Stanley, Northern Trust, State Street, BB&T and US Bancorp.

As a result of the financial crisis, the US authorities ploughed $700 billion of TARP funds into the nation’s banking sector, with similar moves being made by many governments around the world.

The concept of governments having significant holdings in banks – particularly those which offer wealth management services – is one which has sat uneasily with the industry. Institutions are understandably keen to repay government funds, if only to free themselves of scrutiny on issues such as executive remuneration.