After 15 years, 61% of IMF bailouts are recovered

Korea has recouped 61.4 percent of the public funds it injected to bail out troubled financial firms during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, the financial regulator said.

The country has retrieved 103.6 trillion won ($90.2 billion) out of a total of 168.7 trillion won in public funds as of the end of June, according to the Financial Services Commission.

The recovery rate represents a slight increase from 60.9 percent at the end of November last year.

The government recouped 479.8 billion won last month.

The Korean government poured massive amounts of taxpayer money into local financial institutions to rescue them from bankruptcy when the financial crisis erupted in late 1997.

Meanwhile, the watchdog said the country has retrieved 2.12 trillion won, or 34.2 percent of a total of 6.19 trillion won pumped in to stave off market instability in the aftermath of the 2008 global credit crunch.

In June, it recouped 73.7 billion won.

Korea manages two tranches of public funds.

The latter was created in 2009 in a bid to bolster the health of the local finance sector by helping to buy soured loans and assets of bankrupt firms.

Yonhap