Avidia Bank in Hudson is launching its own online business loan application portal in an effort to better compete in the MetroWest market.

The $1.2 billion bank recently announced it had launched Commercial Lending Center, its online business loan application portal. The bank offers its business customers the ability to request a loan at any time and on any device, and it promises an immediate response to the customer’s request.

With the new application process, business and commercial customers can fill out a questionnaire asking for business, loan and financial information, and an Avidia Bank representative will get back to them within 24 hours, said Daniel Provencher, an assistant vice president and commercial lender.

“The Commercial Lending Center provides another avenue for our customers to connect with us on their time, not necessarily our time or when it’s convenient for them to meet with us,” he said.

In a statement, President and CEO Mark O’Connell highlighted the bank’s business in its MetroWest Boston markets in particular.

Provencher highlighted the portal as the latest of Avidia Bank’s complement of banking channels, which also include Avidia Pay.

Ultimately, it’s going to end up being a direction connection with a commercial lender, so there’s really no limit to what we can offer with this, but it just gives us a jump start on getting the info in a quick, easy way for the borrower to be able to do it in a timely fashion,” he said.