For bankers and banking analysts, their 2010 is looking much like their 2009: financial institutions having trouble finding capital and lending money, and more bank failures.

A look at the recent Bauer Financial rating of bank health shows the continuing struggle. There were 47 of 286 banks in Florida with a zero star rating — the lowest possible ranking. One of those banks — Horizon — is based in Bradenton and just received a directive from the Fed to raise more capital or sell.

“We think there will be more failures this year than last year because of a higher number of undercapitalized banks,” said Philip Van Doorn, bank analyst for TheStreet.com. “Even though the economy looks like it is improving.”

Twenty banks in Florida have failed since 2008. Two in 2008, 14 in 2009, and this year — with only 2 1/2 months gone — four have failed.

Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., also has predicted more bank failures and foreclosures in 2010.

“There are still some troubled assets on the books and we still have an economy that’s under significant stress,” Bair told Fortune magazine. “We still don’t know how deep the recession is going to be.”

“The root of the problem is clearly that banks in Florida have been hard hit by the residential housing bust and are nervous about what impact the commercial real estate market will have on them,” said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst with Bankrate.com in North Palm Beach. “It is going to be a tough year, there will be more failures because of the number of bad loans in the pipelines and lots of foreclosures still happening.”

Brian Hall, chief executive officer of Sabal Palm bank, says his bank’s biggest challenge is “the general economy and the pressure that puts on loan portfolios and the decline in value of commercial real estate.”

While Hall says the bank, which received a two-star rating by Bauer, is well capitalized with $10.4 million in capital and $90 million in assets, it wants to “stay ahead of the curve” and is raising more capital through a $2.5 million stock offering to current shareholders. “We continue to grow and we need capital to do so,” said Hall, who called the current situation “a very difficult environment to raise capital.”

Community banks, in particular, find themselves in a Catch-22 scenario. As they try to raise capital to stay out of trouble, bankers say, it is harder than ever to find the needed investors.

Part of the problem is the Federal Reserve’s current role in bank rescues. The Fed provides a lost sharing guarantee to investors, enticing those with money to wait until a bank has failed to see a higher return on investment rather than helping out struggling banks and receiving a lower yield.

“Why trade away to get a player that will get released in a few weeks anyway?” said McBride. Van Doorn agreed, noting, “Potential investors are better off with buying into failed banks with the loss sharing guarantee from the FDIC.”