The blog Calculated Risk posted that there is a new update to the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), the government sponsored program for lenders to modify loan terms to make borrower's payments more affordable. Here are a couple quotes from the article.

There are two key components:
1) New Requirements that Documentation be Provided Before Trial Modification Begins.
2) and guidance on Converting Borrowers in the Temporary Review Period to Permanent Modifications

These new guidelines are to take effect on June 1, 2010. Here's a link to the press release.

Another aspect to be addressed is how to handle existing trial modifications:

2) The second key component of the directive is how to handle all the current trial modifications. For the borrowers who have not made all of their payments, the directive requires the HAMP trial program to be canceled. For borrowers who have made payments, but are missing documentation, Treasury provides some additional guidelines.

This suggests a surge of trial cancellations in February.