U.S. Treasury Says TARP to Cost $200 Billion Less

Full Story at  Bloomberg.com

Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) — The Obama administration expects the cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program to be $200 billion less than projected, helping to reduce the size of the budget deficit, a Treasury Department official said yesterday.

The administration forecast in August that the TARP would ultimately cost $341 billion, once banks had repaid the government for capital injections and other investments. Congress authorized $700 billion for the program in October 2008.

Banks have paid back $71 billion so far, and a planned repayment by Bank of America Corp. would bring that figure to $116 billion. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in an interview last week that he expects the TARP to get as much as $175 billion in repayments from banks by the end of 2010.