Editor's note: Shortly before the Minnesota Department of Commerce closed Jennings State Bank on October 2, the bank's CEO Paul Jennings released an unusually candid letter about the 119-year-old bank's demise. Jennings said he was eager to dispel misperceptions about bank failures in general—and to share his story with fellow bankers who may be in difficult situations themselves. The 52-year-old former banker spoke with NorthWestern Financial Review 10 days after his bank became the 97th failure of 2009. The bank, based in the southeast Minnesota community of Spring Grove, had a branch in Stillwater, Minn.