Discover Financial Services (DFS) on Friday joined the list of newly formed bank holding companies to receive government capital through the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The U.S. Treasury confirmed Tuesday that Discover received $1.23 billion in capital through the program Friday. Discover, which filed for bank holding company status late last year, said Friday it officially became a bank holding company "immediately prior" to completing the transaction with Treasury.

Discover is among several institutions, including American Express Co. (AXP), CIT Group (CIT), Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS) and GMAC LLC, that have converted to bank holding company status in the midst of the financial crisis.

Treasury's purchase of Discover shares was the largest it made last week under a bank-recapitalization effort that is part of TARP. Treasury last week purchased a total of $1.46 billion in shares from 19 financial institutions.

The U.S. Treasury so far has provided $198.5 billion in capital to more than 500 financial institutions.

-By Meena Thiruvengadam, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6629; meena.thiruvengadam@dowjones.com