When Washington pressed the nation’s largest banks to take billions in federal support last autumn, few protested more loudly than Wells Fargo. On Monday, Wells became the last of the big lenders to rush through a repayment before the end of the year, signifying a fitting bookend to the bailout era.

Hours after Citigroup confirmed it was exiting the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program, Wells said it would return the $25 billion it was given to weather the worst financial storm since the Depression. Wells, the largest consumer bank in the United States, will raise $10.4 billion in a share sale to help replenish its coffers.

Wells joins Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, its largest rivals, in shedding the stigma of taxpayer support and the restrictions on compensation that came with it. At the same time, President Obama was pressing chief executives of large bailed-out banks to step up lending to help an economic recovery.

“The stigma of TARP is becoming such an emotional, testosterone-driven thing that they want to be done with the government,” said David H. Ellison, a portfolio manager at FBR Funds, which specializes in financial stocks. “If Bank of America, if Citigroup can do it, then why not me, too?”