U.S. taxpayers have reaped a 7.5 percent return on the $45 billion used to rescue Citigroup Inc., more than three times as much as if the money had been invested in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, Bloomberg reported.

Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit, when summoned by Congress in February to explain his bank’s use of the funds, vowed to “make this a profitable investment for the American people.” After the government purchased a stake in the bank on Oct. 28, the return, which includes dividends, compares with 2.4 percent for the S&P 500 on that basis.

“Anything that they make is positive,” said Frederic Dickson, a market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co. in Lake Oswego, Ore. “After making a huge investment, that seems, on the surface, like a reasonable return for taxpayers.”

The government pumped $25 billion in rescue funds into the New York-based bank in October and another $20 billion a month later. Dividends on preferred shares linked to that money total about $1.6 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Returns have also been boosted by the tripling of the stock price since March, which will benefit the government through the planned conversion of as much as $25 billion of its preferred shares into common stock.

The conversion will give the government a 34 percent stake in the bank, which will also exchange as much as $33 billion of preferred securities not held by the government.