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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The watchdog charged with monitoring the government’s $700 billion bailout unleashed one of his harshest criticisms of the program to date, questioning its overall effectiveness.

In his latest quarterly report to Congress, special inspector general Neil Barofsky said that the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, has failed to boost bank lending as well as halt the spread of foreclosures — two key aims of the sprawling program.

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New York (CNNMoney.com) — The White House is considering a tax on financial institutions to ensure that taxpayers who bailed out banks get paid back, a senior administration official said Monday.

The law that created the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program empowered the president to ask Congress to recoup money if bailouts were not paid back in full.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — GMAC Financial Services will receive a third round of bailout funds from the U.S. Treasury Department and the government will have a controlling stake in the company, according to a government report Wednesday.

The troubled auto and mortgage lender will collect $3.8 billion of additional aid on top of the nearly $13.5 billion already received since December 2008, the Treasury said in a statement Wednesday.

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WASHINGTON – The government has handed its ATM card to beleaguered mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Treasury Department said Thursday it removed the $400 billion financial cap on the money it will provide to keep the companies afloat. Already, taxpayers have shelled out $111 billion to the pair, and a senior Treasury official said losses are not expected to exceed the government’s estimate this summer of $170 billion over 10 years.

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WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is setting aside $30 billion from the financial bailout fund for a program designed to encourage lending to small businesses to aid the economic recovery.

An internal document obtained by The Associated Press spell out how the Treasury Department plans to spend money from the fund before it expires in October 2010. The document show $40 billion would go to consumer and business lending programs.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Wells Fargo said Monday it has reached an agreement with the government to return $25 billion in bailout money it received during last year’s financial crisis.

The San Francisco-based bank said repayment of the funds is contingent on a $10.4 billion common stock offering.

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Two of the nation’s largest banking institutions have announced that they will repay the public bailout money, freeing them from the close scrutiny and pay restrictions that came with the rescue program.

Wells Fargo plans to sell $10.4 billion in new stock to help repay all $25 billion in bailout aid it received from the government at the height of the market meltdown last fall.

The announcement Monday from the San Francisco-based bank comes hours after Citigroup said it would repay $20 billion worth of taxpayer funds.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday he’s confident the Federal Reserve will make money on the trillions it has pumped into the economy since the start of 2008.

“I think we’re in very good shape,” Bernanke said, answering questions following a speech at the Economic Club of Washington. “I do believe we’re going to get back all the money, and indeed we’ll be showing for the taxpayers fairly significant extra income.”

Bernanke was referring specifically to Fed programs — not the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The U.S. Treasury will likely lose money on TARP, though the Obama administration is expected to announce soon that losses will be $200 billion less than initially expected.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Bank of America said late Wednesday it planned to return the entire $45 billion in bailout money it received from the government over the past year.

The move would allow Bank of America, the nation’s largest lender, to wriggle free from a variety of government restrictions it has had to abide by, including pay caps for its top executives.

It could also smooth what has been a difficult search for a new chief executive.

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WASHINGTON – General Motors Co. will begin paying back $6.7 billion in U.S. government loans by the end of 2009 and could pay off that full amount by 2011, four years ahead of schedule, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The government debt represents about 13 percent of the $52 billion that U.S. taxpayers have invested in General Motors, the majority of which was exchanged for a 61 percent ownership stake in the company.

GM will announce the repayment plan Monday when it releases its preliminary third-quarter earnings results, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the plan ahead of the announcement.

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NEW YORK (Fortune) — CIT Group is the first big bailout loss for taxpayers, but it won’t be the last.

CIT (CIT, Fortune 500) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sunday. The New York-based small business lender said all its common and preferred shares will be canceled, which will wipe out the $2.3 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program investment the Treasury Department made last December.

Though the government is also highly unlikely to recoup all the money it plowed into AIG, Citigroup, Fannie Mae and General Motors, CIT is the first bailout to go to zero — in just 11 months, no less.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The Obama administration will soon order the nation’s biggest bailed-out companies to drastically cut the pay packages of 175 top executives, a senior administration official confirmed to CNN Wednesday.

Kenneth Feinberg, who was named the White House’s pay czar in June, will demand that each of the seven largest bailout recipients lower the total compensation for their top 25 highest paid employees by 50%, on average, the official told CNN.

For the past two months, Feinberg has been reviewing pay plans at Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), AIG (AIG, Fortune 500), Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), General Motors, Chrysler, GMAC and Chrysler Financial in an effort to put these firms in a position to pay back bailout money as soon as possible.