Last week ASIC released a consultation paper in which it outlined its proposals for the establishment of a listed corporate bond market. ASIC is proposing to provide relief to allow certain offers of "vanilla" corporate bonds to be made to retail investors via a simplified prospectus. ASIC is also proposing that issuers be able to use a two-part prospectus, which would allow multiple bond issues under a base prospectus, supplemented by a brief offer document for each individual issue. This would work in much the same way as the Deed Poll for a medium-term note program and pricing supplements for individual issues in the wholesale market. (The usefulness of a two-part prospectus will, however, be severely constrained if a proposed 13-month time limitation is applied.)Through these two key proposals ASIC hopes to make it easier for Australian companies to issue bonds to retail investors and provide retail investors with greater opportunities to invest in corporate bonds. For this ASIC is to be commended. However, the proposals have one serious omission and it remains to be seen whether corporate Australia will even bother with a domestic retail market. Corporate Australia is barely interested in the domestic wholesale market, as it is.