Resona Holdings Inc. is negotiating with the Financial Services Agency to repay ¥871.6 billion in public funds it received in a state-backed bailout within a few years, sources said Thursday.

By next March, Resona plans to repay most of the ¥450 billion that was injected into the banking group via purchases of preferred shares to rescue and effectively nationalize it in 2003.

It is also expected to gradually buy back ¥160 billion worth of other government-held shares from a previous bailout, but the December 2014 deadline for converting some of these preferred shares into common stock may be postponed.

The remaining ¥261.6 billion in public funds is represented by state-held common shares the government may sell, depending on stock market conditions. Resona may buy back some of them.

As of September 2003, the Resona group had ¥3.128 trillion in public funds to repay for its nationalization.

Resona has slowly whittled that down over the course of a decade by accumulating retained earnings to repay the money.