Seventh U.S. bank repays bailout money

WASHINGTON, April 17 (Reuters) - The Treasury Department said on Friday a seventh bank has returned bailout money it received from the government and one bank became the first to buy back warrants it issued in return for getting money.

In a so-called "transactions report," Treasury said Shore Bancshares Inc of Easton, Md., repaid $25 million on April 15, making it the seventh to return money to Treasury.

Another bank, Centra Financial Holdings Inc of Morgantown, W.V., which had previously repaid $15 million, on April 15 also bought back for $750,000 warrants it had issued as a condition for receiving the government aid.

A Treasury official said that meant Centra had "totally cleared" the help it had received from the government, making it the first to achieve that milestone.

The seven banks have returned a total $467.3 million to the Treasury, and Goldman Sachs (GS.N) has said it plans to repay $10 billion in government capital pending regulatory approval and results of a "stress test" due by the end of April.

The latest transaction report shows the Treasury now has net investments of $198.4 billion under the CPP program. The Treasury estimates that it will provide up to $218 billion in capital to banks under its original Capital Purchase Program, which was initially eyed at $250 billion.

The Treasury says that 553 banks are participating in the CPP program, with investments in 48 states plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. (Reporting by Glenn Somerville; Editing by Dan Grebler)