SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea said on Tuesday it would sell its entire stake in Woori Financial Group Inc within three years, in a move to recoup taxpayers’ money spent to bail out the company two decades ago.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said in a statement that it had decided to sell the 18.3% stake owned by the state-funded Korea Deposit Insurance Corp from 2020 to 2022.

In the aftermath of the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, the government spent 12.8 trillion won ($11.10 billion) to bail out the bank and has since then gradually sold stakes to recoup the public funds.