For small business borrowers and lenders looking to match up, the dating process just got a little easier.

iBank.com, which runs an online lending network for small businesses, last November launched a lending search engine service. The system promises to match up small businesses with lenders that offer up to 85 different types of loan products, including small business loans, equipment leasing programs and commercial and home equity mortgage loans.

The service helps borrowers create their own professional loan or lease package to present to prospective lenders. Businesses can store their basic data and important documents - management biographies, tax returns, for example - at a secure area within the site. That data will be automatically input for every loan package the customer prepares.

"We have made the process of getting a business loan or lease faster, easier and stress-free for the small business," says Thomas O. Markel, the CEO and chairman of Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Credentrust Software, Inc., the company that owns iBank.com.

Markel says the iBank service eliminates as much as 40% of the loan prep work for the businesses, and gives banks a clearer picture of their prospective borrowers.

iBank works directly with more than 250 "premiere" lenders, who pay to market their chosen loan products through the site. About 20 of these are "preferred" lenders. These solutions providers don't pay more, but they can take a borrower's application and plug it directly into their customer relationship management and underwriting systems.

Markel says the system will also reach onto the Web using search software to look at products offered by more than 50,000 lenders or funding sources who are not clients of the site, offering borrowers a greater range of potential options.

Bill Sorotsky, vice president for commercial lending at Inland Community Bank of Rialto, Calif., says the service generates about 30% of his leads.

Markel says iBank fills a need for harried business owners who don't have time to come into a branch during normal business hours. About 42% of its applications are filled out after 6 p.m. on weekdays and on weekends, he adds.

Charles Wendel, president of Financial Institutions Consulting of Ridgefield, Conn., warns that some of these borrowers could be marginal. He says similar ventures, such as Loanwise.com and Primestreet.com, failed due to adverse credit selection. "Banks weren't happy with the quality of borrower they were getting," Wendel says.

Sorotsky says the credit quality of prospective borrowers he gets through iBank can range broadly "from A to F credit." He finds it useful, however, for marketing Small Business Administration-backed products, for which he can attract out-of-state borrowers.

Markel says potential borrowers pay iBank a fee based on how large a loan they're seeking - from $49.95 for a loan up to $100,000, to $299.95 for a loan of $10 million to $50 million. Premiere lenders pay a one-time fee of $199 for training and support to set up their loan "campaigns" - loan products that target certain regions or amounts or types of business.

Markel says lenders can create as many campaigns as they want, but the average is about four per lender. Lenders also pay $30 a month fee for hosting their information, and a per-click fee every time a prospective borrower comes to them.

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