CHARLOTTE, N.C. ( TheStreet ) -- Bank of America ( BAC ) may pay back TARP by year-end, but the government will still have a less prominent stake in the bank through related warrants. Bank of America announced its plan to buy back $45 billion worth of preferred stock from the Treasury Department on Wednesday. However, the bank said it "is not exercising its right to repurchase the related warrants at this time." As a result, the government can still technically regain an ownership stake in the bank, although that scenario seems improbable. More likely, the bank will have to pay another sizable fee to extinguish the warrants. The Treasury's preferred stock came with 272 million warrants to purchase common stock at a set price. The strike price of roughly 55% of the warrants is $13.30, and the strike price of the rest is $30.79. Linus Wilson, a finance professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, is well known for his research into TARP warrants.