Stepping into the breach created by the credit crunch, Wilshire Finance Partners, an asset-based commercial real estate lender, said it has launched a second real estate mortgage pool fund to raise $100 million to make commercial property loans.

The Wilshire Income Fund II is the company’s first high-yield fund to target borrowers and investors nationwide. An earlier fund had only been available to California residents, it said.

The company recently made a Regulation D filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and now is approved to open the fund to investors and borrowers, said President Kevin DeMeritt, in a statement this week.

“Reduced property values, combined with stricter lending criteria, are making it increasingly difficult for commercial property owners to obtain financing from conventional lenders,” DeMeritt said. “This has opened up a window of opportunity for private lending institutions.”

Similar to a mutual fund, a mortgage pool fund consists of a number of underwritten trust deed loans. Investors purchase shares of the mortgage pool fund and money is lent to borrowers. Wilshire said it makes loans on strong properties with a loan-to-value goal of 65 percent.