"That's an important shift," Geithner told reporters in a telephone briefing.
"Half a million families are participating in loan modifications that are substantially decreasing their housing costs."
After complaints through the summer that modifications were proceeding too slowly, the Treasury prodded banks to hit the goal of modifying 500,000 loans by November. Thursday's announcement puts the program three weeks ahead of schedule, The New York Times reported.
But many homeowners are still complaining that the modification system is frustrating, beset by delays and bank errors.
The program has not won many accolades, especially as it began with a promise in February to modify 4 million loans and had helped only 50,000 home mortgages by the end of June.
Treasury officials met with banking executives in July and extracted promises from banks that they would step up the pace.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International.
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