FRESHMAN REPRESENTATIVE TO BRING BANKING, Varied Background to House

FRESHMAN STATE REP. RANDY TORRES, R-Siloam Springs, will bring a wealth of banking experience to the House of Representatives, but his diversified background also includes manufacturing, ranching, real estate, hospitality, teaching and the ministry.

Torres, Market President for Generations Bank in Siloam Springs, has done a lot in his banking career with stints in commercial lending, treasury management and private banking. He’s owned and operated businesses as well as worked in the aforementioned industry sectors.

Torres obtained a B.S. degree in Animal Science from Texas A&M University in 1993, a Master’s degree in Ministry in 2003 followed by a Master’s in Business Administration in 2012, both from John Brown University.

“I think the best legislators are the ones that can identify and relate to the people that you’re representing,” said Torres. “I never dreamed I’d be here, but when you look backwards and you realize all the different experiences that I’ve had, there’s hardly anyone in my district that I can’t identify with, that I can’t relate to, that I’ve not been in their shoes except for maybe a doctor or a veterinarian. So I think being able to understand how legislation could impact the people in my district, I think I’ve got a pretty good setup to be able to do that.”

Torres and his wife of 30 years, Molly, have two children and one grandchild. He has served back home on the Siloam Springs Public School Foundation, the Illinois River Watershed Partnership, Hope Cancer Resources, Western Benton County Partnership, and is the 2024 Board Chair for the Siloam Springs Chamber of Commerce.

He will serve on the Public Transportation and Aging, Children & Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs committees this session, but Torres thinks his banking expertise will be a strong suit for him.

“I feel like we spend a lot of our time understanding budgeting, and we do financial analysis and forecasting for a lot of our public and private sector organizations. So I feel like that’s going to be helpful. I can apply that experience to our budget for the state as far as allocation of resources and addressing deficits and so forth. So that’s my hope,” said Torres.

When banking issues come up for debate at the state capitol, Torres expects to offer useful insight and to be on guard against legislation that could harm the state’s banking sector.

“This opportunity is to not just represent the people in my district, but to represent the banking community of the state. I’m looking to really help. Access to capital is extremely important for a lot of our small businesses in our communities. Any legislation that’s going to make that more difficult is something I’m going to be mindful of and watchful,” he said.

“I think the other thing that’s happening quite a bit in our state is a lot of bank fraud. It’s just crazy what it’s costing banks and the threat there and the exposure that we have. Anything that we can do to help mitigate that is something that I’ll also be looking to try to help with,” added Torres.