Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says it’s time to close up shop on some of the core components of the government’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

“We are now at the point where we can begin to wind down the programs that really defined TARP in its initial stages,” Geithner said at the Reuters Washington Summit Tuesday.

The Treasury secretary said he’s seen enough progress to feel the Department can safely shut down the principal programs that were designed to make sure large banks had access to capital and remained stable through the downturn. He added, though, that the government would continue to support an economic recovering but would be focused on “more-targeted programs directed at what are the principal areas where there’s still weakness in access to credit,” primarily housing and small businesses, he said.

Just this morning, President Obama unveiled a new initiative to shore up lending for small businesses and make it easier for community banks to access capital.

A Treasury official confirmed to Reuters that three federal programs would be shut down by year-end: the Capital Purchase Program (CPP) that was used to pump money into banks during the last presidential era; a revised version of CPP called the Capital Assistance Program (CAP); and the Targeted Investment Program that supplied $40 billion of additional, special funding to prop up Citigroup and Bank of America.

According to Reuters, to date, Treasury has invested $204.64 billion in over 600 banks through the Capital Purchase Program, and about $70 billion has been repaid. Minus this significant chunk of cash for capital injections and additional lesser amounts for other programs, the Treasury still has about $320 billion in unallocated TARP funds, as reported by MarketWatch.

As written into legislation by Congress, TARP is set to expire December 31. The Treasury and the White House could move to extend the bailout program for another nine months, but Geithner says a decision has not been reached and as DSNews.com reported earlier today, a number of lawmakers are pressing Geithner to let TARP die, largely because they feel the Treasury has not used the money as Congress intended.

Some pieces of the administration’s rescue efforts, though, have yet to come to fruition. Of the Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP), the part involving purchases of troubled legacy loans from banks’ books is still not off the ground, and the fund managers of the legacy securities portion have just recently raised their minimum requirements to begin making those buys.

Although with market conditions appearing to somewhat stabilize and banks reporting profitable quarters – even gains from so-called toxic assets – the holders of these legacy loans and securities seem to be less inclined to part with them, so some argue the much-hyped PPIP may quietly fall to the wayside without producing its promised results.

Reuters Treasury source did tell the paper that, provided the program continues to move forward, the Treasury plans to cap the amount of TARP funds dedicated to PPIP at $30 billion each – significantly lower than the $75 to $100 billion slated for the partnership program when it was initially announced.