SunTrust Seeks to Repay Bailout Aid

SunTrust Banks Inc said on Friday that it planned to repay $4.9 billion in U.S. government bailout aid, becoming the latest bank to push to exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Atlanta-based SunTrust said the Federal Reserve posed no objection to the bank's plan to raise $1 billion through a stock offering and $1 billion through debt to help fund the TARP repurchase.

On Friday, the Fed completed a second round of stress tests for the 19 largest U.S. banks.

SunTrust was the largest U.S. lender that had yet to repay its government bailout aid, received at the height of the financial crisis.

The U.S. Treasury will continue to hold 11.9 million warrants to purchase SunTrust common stock, with an exercise price of $44.15 per share, and 6 million warrants with an exercise price of $33.70 per share.SunTrust shares were up 0.6 percent at $28.43 in midday trading. Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley and SunTrust are joint book-running managers for the common stock offering.

(Reporting by Joe Rauch; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)