The Treasury Department says there has been a significant uptick in the rate at which distressed homeowners are being approved for permanent mortgage modifications under the administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). At the end of November, servicers had granted permanent relief to 33,000 borrowers – the Treasury’s latest progress report shows that number had doubled by the end of December.

According to Treasury officials, 902,620 borrowers have enrolled in HAMP since it started in March. Of these, 112,521 have been approved for permanent modifications, including more than 66,465 that borrowers have accepted and are final, with the remaining 46,056 just needing the homeowner’s signature.

“Treasury is committed to working with servicers and borrowers to sustain this improved pace,” said Chief of Treasury’s Homeownership Preservation Office (HPO) Phyllis Caldwell.

The administration has taken a number of steps to assist servicers in ramping up to give eligible homeowners the opportunity to participate in HAMP.

Over the past month, federal officials were on-site in servicer offices to ensure the companies increased their efforts to deliver decisions to borrowers in the trial phase who had submitted all of their documents and to obtain any missing information for processing. The administration also implemented a temporary review period – which extends until January 31, 2010 – to ensure that all borrowers are being fairly evaluated for the program.

GMAC Mortgage has completed the most permanent conversions – 9,872. Wells Fargo was second with 8,424. JPMorgan Chase has moved 7,139 of its troubled borrowers to permanent status.

Ocwen Financial has finalized 5,332 mods as permanent. CitiMortgage has completed 4,999, while Aurora Loan Services’ permanent numbers come to 4,682, and Bank of America reports 3,183.

HAMP was designed to offer up to 3-4 million homeowners reduced monthly mortgage payments that are affordable and sustainable over the long-term, over the life of the program. By the Treasury’s calculations, more than 850,000 homeowners in the program – in trials and with permanent modifications – have seen their monthly payments drop by about $500.