The bank – now enlarged by its purchase of rival Wachovia – has been looking to return bailout money, as have peers such as Citigroup.

The Californian-based bank said it will return all of the $25 billion paid over under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

“TARP stabilized our country’s financial system when confidence in financial markets around the world was being tested unlike any other period in our history,” Wells Fargo president and chief executive John Stumpf, said in a statement.

 “Now we’re ready to fully repay TARP in a way that serves the interests of the U.S. taxpayer, as well as our customers, team members and investors,” he said.

After the TARP repayment and these initiatives, the company’s estimated Tier 1 common equity ratio would be 6.2 per cent, pro forma based on the September 30, 2009 ratio of 5.2 per cent, the bank said.