May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Lewis Ranieri , the mortgage bond pioneer trying to salvage a Texas bank that lost more than 90 percent of its value, is seeking $1 billion for a separate venture that will buy residential mortgages.

The Labour and Liberal Democrat leaders of Manchester, Bristol, Portsmouth, Lambeth and Hackney are pressing the government to let them compete with banks by offering mortgages. The call is being echoed by London’s local authority umbrella group, London

NEW YORK - Shares of Fannie Mae FNM.N and Freddie Mac FRE.N dove to their lowest levels in more than 18 years on mounting fears of a government bailout that would wipe out shareholders of the two U.S. housing finance giants.

Believing that the collapse of Bear Stearns marked a bottom and the worst is over, investors have shifted their focus from the effects of the credit crisis on the finance industry to fretting about its longer-term consequences on the economy.

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has found one upside to the credit crunch: It's suddenly able to hire Goldman Sachs bankers. The firm announced Monday that Howard Altarescu, a vice president at Goldman, Sachs & Co. who led the bank's mortgage finance gro