Charlotte, N.C. -- A new Internet service is acting as matchmaker for lenders and borrowers.

LendingTree Inc. provides one-stop shopping for consumers by screening their loan applications and forwarding them to potential lenders.

The free screening process sends lenders only those borrowers matching their criteria. LendingTree, which launched its Web site Feb. 18, receives a fee on each deal that is closed.

Through its LendingTree Inc. Web page connection, $9 billion  Zions First National Bank in Salt Lake City is "getting a chance to look at clients who might otherwise have passed us by," president Scott Anderson said.

Anderson said he was pleased with the borrower inquiries Zions is receiving. "And the page hasn't been up that long," Anderson said.

The lenders pay
Lenders pay a fee to have LendingTree match them to borrowers based on the financial information borrowers provide through an online application for home equity, mortgage, car loan, credit card or personal loan.

The information is sent to appropriate lenders, who have up to two days to evaluate the application using their own criteria. A loan bid is then e-mailed to the borrower at a Web site reached through a secure password system.

For Michael Allen, vice president for research and development at National City Bank in Cleveland, Ohio, a subsidiary of $80 billion National City Corp., LendingTree represents a "chance to break out of the linear mindset and look at the Internet as a place where we can do business.

"This is a low-risk venture where we can learn (how to use the Internet) as the medium grows in importance," Allen said. "We don't view it as competition to our own Web efforts. We are simply allowing someone else to do some marketing for us."

Lender base may grow
Others who have come aboard say they agree that this is a good way to break into doing business on the Internet.

They include GreenPoint Financial Corp., a $13.1 billion New York-based holding company; PNC Bank of Pittsburgh, with assets of $71.8 billion; and Equity Mortgage Co. of Owings Mill, Md., a subsidiary of the $1.7 billion in assets IMC Mortgage Co. of Tampa, Fla.

"I am negotiating with others," said Douglas Lebda, a former executive with Price Waterhouse who one banker described as having a passion for dealing on the Internet.

"What we found as we talked with lenders is that banks clearly have their own Web sites," he said. "But while they got in a lot of loan applications, it was costing them money to analyze and deny many (loans)."

Financial institutions are given an equal shot at potential borrowers and Lebda stressed that it is competition for customers that will lead to sharper pencils in figuring interest rates. "Lenders will be watching that closely to make sure their bids are always competitive, and that will be good for consumers.

"We have increased the likelihood that a loan will be approved and that makes it easier on everyone."