The Treasury Department announced that it’s going to allow 10 of the nation’s largest financial institutions to repay $68 billion in bailout money as the banks try to work their way clear of government control.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Morgan Stanley (MS), American Express (AXP), Capital One (COF), US Bancorp (USB), Bank of New York - Mellon (BK), Northern Trust (NTRS), State Street (STT), Goldman Sachs (GS) and BB&T (BBT) have announced that they are in the group of 10 that have been given permission to repay money to the program. 

Treasury didn’t name the institutions that will be allowed to repay, instead letting the banks make their own announcements.

Under the investment agreements, financial institutions that repay their preferred stock have the right to repurchase the warrants Treasury holds in their firms at fair market value.

The bailout money came from the Troubled Asset Relief Program’s Capital Purchase Program. Treasury said that if all these banks choose to repay that money, it will have received about $70 billion back from the CPP overall. Prior to this announcement, only a few smaller banks have been approved to repay the money.

Treasury had previously expected to receive only around $25 billion back from the program this year, so this is a significant step up from that amount. 

The agency noted that this action follows a period in which many banks have been able to raise capital from private investors and have issued long-term debt without government guarantees. The announcement comes several weeks after the results of the so-called stress tests were announced. Those tests were done on the 19 largest U.S. financial institutions -- those with more than $100 billion in assets -- and were designed to measure whether those institutions would be able to withstand a prolonged, deepened downturn.

“These repayments are an encouraging sign of financial repair, but we still have work to do,” said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in a statement.

Morgan Stanley was the only institution on the list that had been asked to raise capital after the results of the stress tests came out. Northern Trust was the only one on the list that hadn't been subjected to the stress test. All of the others were on the list of those that passed the stress tests without having to raise additional capital; MetLife (MET) passed the stress test as well, but hadn't taken TARP money.

Some people have raised questions about whether the stress tests worked under severe-enough assumptions to simulate the current economic situation.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in testimony on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that "it was a very conservative test," adding that the assumptions were more severe than the two worst years in the Great Depression.