And we don’t just mean the end of the TARP. This may signal the End Times – not only did Bank of America actually finish paying back its TARP funds yesterday, but now Citi is in talks to do the same. Yes, that Citi!

Citigroup Inc’s negotiations to repay its government bailout are uncertain but are headed in the right direction, CNBC quoted a U.S. Treasury official as saying on Thursday.

The official was quoted by the TV network as saying Citigroup, where the U.S. government holds a 34 percent stake, was likely to strike a deal soon to repay the funds it borrowed under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Granted, this doesn’t exactly mean that the bank will be out of the government’s hair by the end of the week (though Bandit’s hoping it can), but that they’re even able to have this conversation is little short of surprising. One might have expected the phone call to go a little like this:

*Rrrrrring*
Timmay: O HAI
Bandit: Take my failout munny, plz
Timmay: LOL, U NO CAN HAZ UR INDEPINDINS, U NOT EVEN HAZ KWARTERLEE INCOMEZ
Bandit: Srry
Timmay: GTFO

But no, $C has offered to dilute the dickens out of its shareholders because that seemed to work out pretty well for $BAC.

The bank plans to pay back TARP by raising money in an equity offering that could be announced as early as Thursday and could total some $20 billion, CNBC reported on Wednesday, citing sources.

$20b is, incidentally, the exact value of the preferred shares of $C that the government holds. Funny, that! There’s also the $25b it converted to common stock earlier this year. Right now those are worth about $30b or so, but would be worth considerably less after the equity fail, and the government would unwind that position whenever it darn well feels like it.

Citi is, of course, paying back its TARP money because it is a good citizen and wishes to no longer be a burden on the government of the country it loves. No, we’re making that up, it wants to get out of the TARP program so it can compensate however it pleases. It would make sense to give a lot of money to the employees that helped drive your company to the brink of failure, of course. Lord knows you wouldn’t want to lose them to one of your competitors.

If Citi manages to pull this off, that would leave Wells Fargo as the sole remaining big bank in the TARP program. Several smaller banks are still in it as well, but none received more than $10b which is an amount so small it is not even real money. Wells is also negotiating repayment, although much of its cash is currently tied up in pork bellies so who knows if that will happen.