The Federal Reserve is trimming down some of the 10 support programs it created or expanded following the onset of the credit crisis in August 2007, Bloomberg reported.

The move triggered the first decrease in the amount of money the United States has committed on behalf of taxpayers to end the recession.

The Fed decided, however, to continue funneling $1.25 trillion of new money into the mortgage market, with a spotlight on boosting the U.S. economy as the financial system rebounds and banks ask for less assistance.

“The first thing the Fed had to do was stop the bleeding in the banking system,” said Richard Yamarone, director of economic research at New York-based Argus Research Corp. “Now that that seems to have been accomplished, they’re focusing on the economy by buying mortgage-backed securities.”

Since January, the central bank has purchased $694 billion of mortgage-backed securities and has plans to expend an additional $556 billion by April 2010 to keep interest rates down.

The purchases were slated to halt at the end of December. But on Sept. 23, the Federal Open Market Committee decided to continue the program through the first quarter of 2010, slowing the pace, rather than stopping completely, in order to “promote a smooth transition in markets,” the committee said in a prepared statement. It added that the economy has “picked up.”