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About Esteb & Co

Most brokers have only ever sat on one side of the table. We spent a decade on the other.

Before Esteb & Co existed, Richard Esteb worked inside private lending — assessing applications, structuring deals and funding them, not just submitting them. This brokerage is that experience turned outward: a Connective-accredited finance broker comparing a panel of 50 lenders, with technology doing the legwork and a human making the call.

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The road here

From funding loans to broking them.

Broking wasn't the starting point. It's where the lending years led.

The lending years

Inside private lending, on the funding side.

Richard spent over a decade inside private lending — first working as a lender, funding real transactions: residential purchases, business equity release, multi-stage land developments, securities-backed facilities and childcare portfolios. When you've written the cheques, you learn how credit decisions are actually made — what gets a deal funded, and what quietly kills it.

The ASX-listed years

Marketing Manager at an ASX-listed private lender.

Then came the volume view: seeing application after application cross the desk at a listed lender. The pattern was hard to ignore — good borrowers routinely ended up with the wrong lender, not because their deal was weak, but because whoever placed it only really knew a handful of lenders well.

2025 · Founded

Esteb & Co — built around one idea.

Comparing lenders is largely a data problem; advising a borrower is a human one. So we built matching technology that screens our lender panel against your actual numbers — LVR, income, credit position — and kept the judgement, the phone calls and the responsibility with a licensed broker.

Today

Connective-accredited, panel of 50 lenders.

Esteb & Co operates as a credit representative under Connective Credit Services (ACL 389328), with access to a panel of 50 lenders spanning the majors, non-banks and specialist funders. One broker, no call centre, and a direct line to the person who reads your file.

Career history as stated by the founder. Deal examples from the lending years are kept qualitative and anonymised to protect client confidentiality.

The founder

Meet Richard.

Richard (Ricky) Esteb

Finance broker & founder · Credit Rep #574071

Richard's lending career ran from funding individual deals to marketing at an ASX-listed private lender — assessing risk, structuring finance and watching what actually happens after a lender says yes or no. The deals he was part of funding ranged from vehicle finance for a startup with no trading history to rolling facilities across multi-stage residential developments and securities-backed lending for substantial shareholdings.

That background shapes how Esteb & Co works today: when a deal doesn't stack up, you hear it straight, with the reason — and usually a path to fixing it. When it does, it goes to the lender most likely to say yes, with the file presented the way an assessor wants to read it.

Read Richard's full background →

How we work

Four steps. No theatre.

Understand the deal

A short online form covers your situation, income and goals — no credit check to start, and no mandatory phone call before you see anything useful.

Compare the panel

Our matching technology screens the 50-lender panel against your actual numbers — loan-to-value ratio, income, credit position — instead of a broker's memory of ten favourites. Richard then sanity-checks the shortlist against current lender appetite.

Recommend, with reasons

You see why each lender fits — not just a name and a rate. If the honest answer is "wait six months and fix these two things first", that's the advice you get.

Carry it to settlement

We prepare and submit the application, handle the lender back-and-forth, chase the documents and coordinate settlement. You deal with one person the whole way.

Plainly stated

What we do — and what we won't.

We do

Read every file personally — the person you speak to is the person who places your deal.
Tell you when a deal doesn't stack up, and what would change the answer.
Show you the reasoning behind each lender recommendation.
Put any fee — rare as they are — in writing before you commit to anything.
Stay with the deal through to settlement, not just to submission.

We won't

Push a lender because of what it pays us.
Promise an approval, a rate or an outcome we can't put in writing.
Limit you to a short list of "preferred" lenders out of habit.
Hand you to a call centre or a processing queue.
Pressure you to proceed — you're free to walk away at any point.

How we're paid

Our service is generally at no cost to you: when your loan settles, the lender pays us a commission. That's the standard broking model, and it's disclosed to you up front. Commission is not an input to our matching — lenders are shortlisted on how well they fit your circumstances, and our incentive is simple: a loan that doesn't suit you doesn't settle, and a loan that doesn't settle pays nothing.

In the less common cases where a fee applies — typically complex commercial or private lending work — it's disclosed and agreed in writing before you commit to anything.

Full details of how we're remunerated are in our Credit Guide.

Licensing

Properly licensed, on the record.

Esteb and Co Pty Ltd provides credit assistance as an authorised credit representative. We arrange credit; the lenders approve it, subject to their criteria and responsible-lending assessments.

#574071

ASIC Credit Representative — Richard Esteb

ACL 389328

Connective Credit Services Pty Ltd — our licensee & aggregator

MFAA 937494

Member, Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia

ACN 690 323 687

Esteb and Co Pty Ltd · Ashmore, QLD

Common questions

About us, answered straight.

Why choose Esteb & Co over a bigger brokerage?

Bigger doesn't mean better-placed. Here, the person who takes your call is the person with the lending background who reads your file and places your deal — there's no call centre and no processing queue. Our matching technology screens the full 50-lender panel against your numbers, rather than relying on one broker's familiarity with a handful of lenders.

What makes your experience different from other brokers?

Most brokers have only ever worked on the application side. Richard spent over a decade inside private lending — funding deals directly, then as Marketing Manager at an ASX-listed private lender — assessing applications and seeing exactly why lenders approve or decline. That assessor's view of a file is what your application gets before it goes anywhere.

Are you properly licensed?

Yes. Esteb and Co Pty Ltd (ACN 690 323 687) provides credit assistance as an authorised credit representative of Connective Credit Services Pty Ltd (Australian Credit Licence 389328). Richard Esteb holds ASIC Credit Representative number 574071, and the business is an MFAA member (937494). You can verify credit representative details on ASIC's registers.

Are you a tech company or a real brokerage?

A real, licensed brokerage that uses technology where technology is better — screening the lender panel quickly and consistently against your numbers. Everything that needs judgement stays human: the advice, the structuring, the application, the lender negotiation and settlement coordination.

Does your service cost me anything?

Generally, no. The lender pays us a commission when your loan settles, which is the standard broking model, and commission doesn't influence which lenders we shortlist. Where a fee ever applies — typically complex commercial or private lending work — it's disclosed and agreed in writing before you commit. Details are in our Credit Guide.

What happens to my loan if Esteb & Co closed down?

Your loan is a contract between you and the lender, not with us — we're the introducer and adviser. Once your application is with a lender, it continues directly with that lender regardless of what happens to any broker, and a settled loan is entirely unaffected.

Talk to the person who'd actually place your deal.

Start with the short form — your situation, your numbers, your goal. We'll compare the panel and come back with options and honest reasoning. No credit check to start.

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