The US Treasury said Thursday it would sell warrants in JPMorgan Chase and two other commercial banks acquired under a program to pump capital into the financial system.
Treasury officials said they would use a "modified Dutch auction" to sell the warrants in JPMorgan, Capital One Financial and TCF Financial Corporation, over the next month.
The warrants are a type of option that would allow the Treasury to obtain more shares of the bank if it determined the institution needed additional capital.
Each of the three banks has fully repaid the original capital injection, so the selling of the warrants would allow the government to dispose of all remaining interest in the firms.
"The proceeds of these sales will provide an additional return to the American taxpayer from Treasury's investments in these banks beyond the dividend payments it received on the related preferred stock," a Treasury statement said.
The Dutch auction methodology establishes a market price by allowing investors to submit bids at specified increments above a minimum price specified for each auction.
In June, major banks began repaying the US Treasury for capital injected into the financial system during the height of the crisis.
JPMorgan Chase in June repaid the government for its 25-billion-dollar capital injection, the largest of some 68 billion dollars in expected repayments.
