WASHINGTON — Ten large U.S. banks will finish repaying about $68 billion in bailout money today, marking a new phase for the most visible government effort to relieve the credit crisis, the Treasury Department said.

Treasury said last week the banks could begin repaying money they received last fall under the $700 billion financial system bailout known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

The banks have been negotiating with Treasury over the prices of stock warrants they issued as part of the TARP deal. When Treasury made its initial investments, it received the warrants, which give it the opportunity to buy the banks' common shares in the future at a fixed price. The value of the warrants would depend on the shares' future performance.

TARP became a flashpoint for critics of government intervention last fall, when Congress debated whether to commit $700 billion of taxpayer money to the effort.

The banks repaying TARP are some of the industry's largest, including JPMorgan Chase, American Express, Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley. BB&T and U.S. Bancorp. also said they were repaying their TARP money.

In addition to the money they're returning, the banks have paid Treasury more than $2 billion in dividends.

With Wednesday's repayments, Treasury will have recovered more than $70 billion distributed under the program, including about $2 billion from earlier repayments by smaller banks.