The general manager finance and tax at Wesfarmers, Luigi Mottolini, spent a good part of May and June leading a roadshow to meet with local credit investors. The aim of the meetings was to repair relations with bond portfolio managers and analysts who had been very critical of the way Wesfarmers handled the issue of some outstanding bonds during its takeover of retailer Coles Group last year.To hear the investors tell the story, Wesfarmers management gave a clear indication back in July last year that the company would buy out investors holding $400 million of Coles 2012 notes as part of its funding of the acquisition. The bondholders were happy with that prospect.Not long after, the company "reneged", saying the decision was still pending. And then when it came to a vote of financiers to settle the matter the banks had the controlling vote. The notes have remained on issue.So bad was the feeling between Wesfarmers, a regular issuer in the Australia credit market over the past decade, and bond holders that there was a view that the reason Wesfarmers went offshore to raise US$650 million of debt earlier this year was that it could not get any support locally.Mottolini said a number of these criticisms were unfair and that Wesfarmers acted correctly at all times. But he did concede that the company had rushed some things during the Coles transaction and, with hindsight, could have done things better. Mottolini said: "When we went on the roadshow some of the investors told us they had been put out by what had happened. They were happy that we were making more of an effort with them."Wesfarmers handling of the Coles notes matter and the reaction of investors is indicative of a new dynamic in the Australian credit market. Investors are more questioning in their dealings with issuers. They feel that they have been treated as the poor cousins of banks for too long and they want better access to companies' investor relations teams and to detailed documentation.This sense of scepticism and caution extends to issuers of asset backed securities and infrastructure bonds as well as corporates. When markets re-open, issuers can expect to have a different relationship with investors. Given events of the past year, investors feel they can no longer put their faith in ratings agencies or credit insurers. They want to dig deeper into the operations of the businesses whose credit they are buying. With credit hard to come by their sense is that now is the time to assert themselves.AMP Capital Investors head of credit markets Jeff Brunton said the recent insistence on greater disclosure was a reflection of the state of the markets. "We have been through several earnings reporting cycles when assurances were given about the state of balance sheets, only to be followed by more writedowns."We are in a new market where transparency and disclosure has become critical."Brunton said credit investors wanted the same standing as banks when it came to disclosure. "We don't have that