Consumer spending is still low, joblessness remains high, and many banks simply aren’t willing to gamble on deals that might have been made in the past.

Channin, a partner with Riverwood Properties LLC, said developers are lending to tenants if they believe in the concept and have the money to lend that banks can’t or won’t. “[Banks] don’t want to take any risk,” he said. “They’ve taken the risk in the past, and it cost them.”

Many banks say they are eager to lend, especially to industries such as health care or to companies doing business related to government-stimulus contracts and green technologies. It’s not that banks don’t want to lend.

Many Georgia banks are caught between economic uncertainty and regulatory policy, Georgia Bankers Association president and CEO Joe Brannen said in testimony before a congressional panel November 2.

The Peach State leads the nation in bank failures with 25 since August 2008. A third of Georgia’s 322 banks and thrifts are under some form of regulatory scrutiny, impairing their ability to lend as they conserve capital for losses down the road and shrink balance sheets to reduce concentrations of risk.

Banks must ensure borrowers can repay their debts.

“That’s protection for the borrower and good underwriting for the bank,” he said.

Georgia banks have shrunk their balance sheets, but total loans and leases still stand at $211 billion, down only 1.7 percent from year-end 2008 totals.

Chapter 7 bankruptcies in Georgia have soared during the first nine months of the year. Business bankruptcies in the U.S. were up 44 percent in the third quarter over the same period last year, according to Equifax Inc., though Atlanta actually saw a 44 percent drop from the second quarter to the third quarter of this year.

Lending to the middle market also took a hit with the bankruptcy-protection filing of CIT Group Inc., Plath said. CIT Group lends to startups, retailers, and manufacturers through factoring and SBA loans.

Capital-starved companies are seeking out alternatives.

Steven Gold, president of Allied Financial Corp., an asset-backed lender based in Atlanta, said referrals for business have tripled this year, though loan growth is not up nearly as much. Small community banks and even larger players have referred business for clients they cannot accommodate.

Allied provides revolving lines of credit based on accounts receivables, though the cost for funds is higher than bank loans.

SBA loans, once seen as having onerous conditions, have become a go-to alternative.

Chuck Lewis, president and CEO of One Georgia Bank, said his bank is one of the largest SBA lenders in the state. During the boom years, competition for loans was so fierce because the metro area had so many banks, it became a borrower’s market.

“People are starting to lend again, but it’s with caution,” Lewis said.