Keeping track of who’s paying back.

UPDATE (May 29, 2009): On Wednesday, First Manitowoc Bancorp Inc. (FMWC) of Manitowic, Wis., issued a press release that it had returned all of its $12.6 million in TARP funds. Yesterday, First Niagara Financial Group (FNFG) of Lockport, N.Y., also announced that it had completed repayment of its $184 million in TARP funds. That bumps First Niagara out of the pledge category, where it's been lingering since mid-April.

Together the returns bring the TARP-o-Meter's total-repaid category up to roughly $1.733 billion.

Also, the time has come for a little bit of end-of-the-month bookkeeping. The "never lent" category, introduced in late April, has been slowly leaking as the Treasury distributed roughly $303.5 million in $TARP to 40 small banks under its Capital Purchase Program over the past month. The median disbursement was about $5 million and the mean closer to $7.6 million.

In addition to these smaller banking hits, the Treasury has tapped the TARP pool for several larger sums. These include spending related to the auto industry rescue, such as a $7.5 billion purchase of GMAC preferred stock to fund the GM (GM) bailout.

So far, $600.8 billion of the original $700 billion allocated to TARP has been committed, according to Propublica's bailout tracker (which provides the most comprehensive and granular coverage of the various initiatives sponsored under the umbrella program). That brings the total funds never lent down to $99.2 billion.

UPDATE (May 28, 2009): On Tuesday, Washington Federal Savings Inc. (WFSL) of Seattle announced that it had been cleared by the Treasury to repay its $TARP. Yesterday, the bank completed the $200 million wire payment, Senior VP of Investor Relations Cathy Cooper confirmed. The return is one of the largest to date (second only to the $361 million repaid by TCF Financial Corp. in late April) and brings the TARP-o-Meter's total-repaid category up to $1.536 billion. Welcome, Washington Federal, to Elizabeth Warren's TARP Club!

UPDATE (May 26, 2009): Last Wednesday, two banks chipped in a sum of $72.2 million to the TARP-o-Meter, bringing the total repaid up to roughly $1.336 billion. Somerset Hills Bancorp (SOMH) of Bernardsville, N.J., returned $7.4 million in government funds, and South Carolina Bank and Trust (SCBT) of Columbia returned $64.8 million, proudly declaring itself "the first bank in the Carolinas and one of the first twenty banks in the nation to return."

SCBT is, in fact, the 16th bank to repay its $TARP. Don't sell yourself short, SCBT; you've done great!

On a side note, California has put in a bid for $13 billion in TARP funds to guarantee short-term municipal bonds. Underwriting local public debt would be new territory for the federal program, but it's not clear how the Golden State is going to close its budget gap without help from somewhere. As TBM contributor Mark Gimein points out, "California really is too big to fail."

Click here for a full list of who paid back what, and when.

UPDATE (May 19, 2009): Last week, two more small banks repaid their TARP debts in full, giving a $101.9 million boost to the TARP-o-Meter. Alliance Financial Corp. (ALNC) of Syracuse, N.Y., returned $26.9 million in government funds. Texas Capital Bancshares (TCBI) of Dallas returned $75 million. Those sums bring the total repaid category up to roughly $1.264 billion and earn each bank a spot in Elizabeth Warren's TARP Club!

Also, Morgan Stanley (MS) has formally requested permission from the Treasury to return its $10 billion in $TARP, according to a report this morning from the New York Post. Stacked on top of Morgan Stanley's recent sales of common stock and FDIC-free debt, filing to repay earns the bank a spot in the pledge category, more than doubling the total to $17.934 billion.

Click here for a full list of who's paid back what, and when.

UPDATE (May 15, 2009): On Wednesday, BB&T Corporation (BBT) announced that it had filed with the Treasury to repay its $3.1 billion in $TARP after pricing a $1.5 billion sale of common stock to help fund the return. That brings the Tarp-o-Meter pledge total up to $7.934 billion and puts BB&T in contention with American Express (AXP) and Northern Trust (NTRS) for the first spot in Tim Geithner's Golden Circle.

In addition to BB&T, other banks have spent the past week scrambling to repay their $TARP following the release of Treasury stress tests results last Thursday. The Treasury has not yet approved any new returns, but banks are eager to shed the strings and stigma attached to the TARP program and have issued a flurry of stock and bonds as they strive to meet the conditions for returning bailout funds. Here's a quick overview of those guidelines and of who's been selling what.

In order to repay $TARP, large banks must first demonstrate that they have or can meet the capital requirements determined for each institution by the stress test. Second, they have to prove they can sell debt without the FDIC guaranteeing the loans under the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, another federal bailout measure designed to keep credit flowing when the economic crisis first hit.

The stress test results for JPMorgan (JPM), American Express and Goldman Sachs (GS) indicated the firms did not require new capital. On Wednesday, JP Morgan sold $2.5 billion worth of FDIC-free bonds, and American Express sold $3 billion worth. Last month, Goldman Sachs issued $2 billion worth of similar notes. (As noted below, Amex also announced last week that it had filed to return its $TARP.)

Also Wednesday, Morgan Stanley — which is required under the stress test to raise $1.8 billion in new capital — priced $3 billion in common stock, as well as $4 billion in FDIC-free senior debt.

Several other large banks included in the stress tests have priced public offerings to help repay their TARP debts. U.S. Bancorp (USB), Capital One (COF), and Bank of New York Mellon (BK) cleared stress test capital requirements, sold a total of roughly $5.2 billion in new stocks, and announced their intentions to use the proceeds to get out from under the program.