The market for online marketplaces isn't what it was a year ago.

But a group of investors in the financial services industry believes it can change the way loan traders work by creating an electronic platform that will improve the process of researching, buying, and selling corporate loans. Banking bigwigs Bank of America, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan Chase have signed on the dotted line, agreeing to throw their financial support behind LoanX Inc., an online exchange for the loan market created by LoanX CEO Michael Rushmore and Creditex Inc., a provider of online trading technology. LoanX is looking to launch its electronic loan-trading platform before the end of the year to first complement, and eventually supplant, the work that traders do over the phone. Posting information about loan availability online levels the field for competing financial institutions by making the same data available to all bidders, says Clay Desjardine, managing director and head of secondary loan trading and sales at Deutsche Bank. The platform will be available to large investment and commercial banks as well as bank loan portfolio managers—all very savvy technology users, Rushmore said. The market for secondary, or syndicated, loans is estimated to be about $160 billion.