The U.S. Treasury Department said it plans further sales of stock in Ally Financial Inc., the lender it rescued during the 2008 financial crisis, after completing the sale of 8.89 million shares.

The Treasury now holds 66.2 million shares of common stock, or about 13.8 percent of Detroit-based Ally, the department said Friday in a statement in Washington. The share sale brought in $218.7 million, it said.

“Treasury’s sale of additional common stock continues our effort to wind down the investment in Ally,” Treasury Chief Investment Officer Charmian Uy said in the statement. “The second trading plan will allow us to continue exiting the investment in a manner that balances speed of exit with maximizing the taxpayer’s return.”

Taxpayers have recovered $440 billion compared with the $425.2 billion disbursed through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Treasury said. TARP was used to bail out financial companies and automakers during the crisis.

“Ally views these transactions as incremental steps toward ultimately exiting the Troubled Asset Relief Program and delivering additional value to shareholders, including the U.S. taxpayer,” Gina Proia, a spokeswoman for Ally, said in an e-mailed statement.

Burdened by subprime mortgages, Ally began reporting losses in 2007 that reached $10.3 billion in 2009. With the firm on the brink of failure, the U.S. engineered a rescue to ensure money kept flowing to the auto industry and preserve jobs.