Washington ? The Treasury Department on Friday hailed what it called a milestone in the history of the controversial $700 billion bailout fund: For the first time, the amount repaid by banks and other recipients has surpassed the outstanding balance.

In the latest monthly report to Congress on the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, Treasury officials said repayments had reached $194 billion. That figure tops the $190 billion in bailout money still outstanding.

The fund received a big boost in May when the Treasury Department completed its sale of 1.5 billion shares of Citigroup stock it acquired in that bank’s bailout — a sale that pulled in $6.18 billion.