NEW YORK, April 5 (Reuters) - U.S. taxpayers earned an annualized 8.5 percent return from the government’s bailout of 49 financial firms, underscoring efforts by the industry to speed up repayments and warrant repurchases, according to a report by SNL Financial.

Firms such as Citigroup C.N, which still has common shares held by the U.S. Treasury Department, and rivals that have made partial redemptions were excluded from the analysis, SNL Financial said in a statement on Monday.

Proceeds from Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) warrant repurchases and auctions led to a surge in returns through March 30, SNL said. So far, since the start of the program in late 2008, 64 institutions have fully repaid government aid.

For months, taxpayers balked at government efforts to help banks, which they saw as the main culprit behind the worst U.S. recession since the 1930s, as the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers shook global financial markets in late 2008.

The biggest banks, such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS.N, repaid the money they owed the Treasury last year and earlier this year. Still, more than 600 smaller banks are left in the program, and owe roughly $130 billion to taxpayers.

Goldman alone produced a return of 20 percent to taxpayers at the time of repayment in July last year, according to SNL.

Overall, firms that have exited the programs, plus those 18 that have fully redeemed their TARP preferred stock but still have their warrants held by the Treasury, returned 7.6 percent in the period, SNL Financial noted. (Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)