June 18, 2009

U.S. Bancorp and JPMorgan Chase & Co. — two banks with a large Oregon presence — are among those that said Wednesday they were returning funds they took last year from the U.S. Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank (NYSE: USB) was returning $6.6 billion and New York-based JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) was giving back $25 billion.

They are among several large U.S. banks that were expected to refund TARP money Wednesday, the first day that many banks were eligible to do so under the $700 billion rescue program’s rules.Under TARP, several large banks had to meet government “stress test” requirements before getting permission to repay funds.U.S. Bank had previously announced its plans to redeem the preferred stock issued to the Treasury, and last week it received approval from the government to do so.