We still don't know for sure what the agency's final mandate will look like, because Congress is still working on it. The financial industry and any other likely targets will be lobbying furiously to reduce the degree to which they are legislated, so it's hard to say where things will end up. As the credit crisis has eased, Congress may not decide to regulate aggressively.

Most likely, though, there will be some push to regulate mortgages in hopes of protecting consumers against taking on risks unwittingly, as many did in the last housing boom.