The Troubled Asset Relief Program that pumped billions of dollars into national banks and financial firms during the economic crisis received some payback Wednesday after three banks repaid $7.4 billion in TARP funds. The banks pushing TARP investments into the black included: SunTrust Banks Inc. (STI), which repurchased all remaining capital purchase program shares from the treasury’s investment valued at $4.85 billion and paid accrued dividends totaling $10.1 million; KeyCorp (KEY), which repurchased all remaining CPP preferred shares totaling $2.5 billion and paid accrued dividends of $15.6 million; and Financial Institutions Inc., which repurchased all CPP totaling $25 million and paid accrued dividends totaling $156,313. With these new transactions in play, taxpayers have now recouped $251 billion from the TARP program in the form of repayments, dividends, interest and other income. “That exceeds the original investment Treasury made through those programs ($245 billion) by nearly $6 billion,” the federal agency said. “Treasury currently estimates that bank programs within TARP will ultimately provide a lifetime profit of approximately $20 billion to taxpayers.” The Treasury said based on current market conditions, it expects TARP investment programs will end up costing taxpayers very little or next to nothing. “The lifetime cost of TARP is likely to be limited to funds disbursed for Treasury’s foreclosure prevention programs, which were not intended to be recovered,” the Treasury said. Write to Kerri Panchuk.