Independent Banker - March 2025 - 53

" Banking is all about
relationships,
and my staff does a
phenomenal job of ...
building relationships
with people. "
-JACK E. HOPKINS, CORTRUST BANK
the CFPB Community Bank Advisory
Board in 2015 and 2016. Hopkins has
met with the heads of all the regulatory
agencies many times.
In an era of smaller banks being
disproportionately burdened with
regulations, Hopkins' advocacy-
alongside other community bankers'-
is essential. " It does threaten the
livelihood of the community banking
model if they continue to bury us
with regulations, " he says. " We aren't
like the big banks that are making
decisions out on the coast and saying,
'This is what you're going to do in
Sioux Falls, S.D.,' and their people on
the ground are groaning. We have to
live with it here. "
Hopkins' number-one goal for his
term is to makes waves in Washington
and make it known how rules like
the CFPB's Section 1071 and Section
1033 rules affect smaller banks. He
also advocates for modernizing the
Community Reinvestment Act and
all the unnecessary reporting that
community banks are required to
keep. Many thresholds in regulation
have not been changed since the
1970s, and $10,000 then is not the
same as $10,000 today. But he can't do
it alone.
" I'm hoping that we can encourage
more grassroots advocacy, because
it's going to take a lot of advocacy this
year to get some of these things done, "
he says. " If they don't hear from us,
they don't think it's a problem. "
Welcoming the fourth generation
Boyd Hopkins Sr. purchased controlling rights of CorTrust Bank in
1961. Since then, both his son, Boyd D. Hopkins, and grandson, Jack
E. Hopkins, have taken their turns as bank president and CEO. The
trio represent three generations of the family-owned bank, and in
2018, the fourth generation was brought into the fold.
Just like her father, McKinzie Hopkins started her career in the Twin
Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn. After she graduated from
the University of St. Thomas with law and accounting degrees, she
started at professional services organization Deloitte in Minneapolis.
As his father and grandfather did before him, Jack Hopkins
required that his three children-McKinzie, Spencer and Jerrod-
worked at outside organizations for at least four years before
considering returning to CorTrust. Jerrod currently works for The
Hartford Financial Services Group in Denver, while Spencer works as
an attorney at a New York City law firm.
McKinzie, who's the oldest, had been working with Deloitte Tax
for about six years when Hopkins asked her if she was interested in
working at the family bank. He made the official ask at a Minnesota
Twins baseball game. " No pun intended, but it felt like it came out of
left field, " says McKinzie. " I wasn't expecting it. "
Hopkins had solid reasoning behind the request, however. " We
were in the middle of taking on one [bank] purchase up in the Twin
Cities market, and we were looking at another one, " he says. " I knew
we needed some more help. "
For McKinzie, it took significant thought and consideration. " I
also remember saying to my dad, 'I know tax. I know nothing about
banking. Are you sure?' and he responded, 'You know more than you
think you do,' " McKinzie recalls. " Turns out, he was right! "
Now executive vice president of credit administration, McKinzie
also likes to run sideline projects. For example, she is involved
in choosing new products and services suitable for a younger
generation. " She grasped a lot of it, a lot better than the rest of us [at
the bank], " says Hopkins. " And she's smarter than all of us. "
" I am so happy to be working in community banking, " says
McKinzie. " It's even better that I get to work alongside my dad. It is a
natural fit for me, and I think he knew it would be. "
For those looking to get involved
in advocacy, Hopkins recommends
getting started at a state level: Join
your state association; keep an eye on
ICBA's NewsWatch Today and the Be
Heard Action Center (icba.quorum.
us); send letters or emails to state
senators and/or representatives;
and attend ICBA's Capital Summit
(icba.org/capital-summit) in May.
" We have to be loud, " he states.
" We have to give [Congress] examples
of how it's harming our customers,
because at the end of the day, that's
what they care about. "
Rachel Hatcher is managing editor of
Independent Banker.
independentbanker.org // 53
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Independent Banker - March 2025

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