Average Australians are now able to buy corporate bonds as FIIG Securities said on Wednesday that it is opening up a new service that would allow ordinary investors to purchase high-yielding, investment-grade bonds in parcels for as low as $50,000.

The bond's previous lowest value was $500,000 and consequently only banks, fund managers and the super-rich could gain access to such service as FIIG managing director Jim Stening said that the company initiative should level the playing field and leapfrog the availability of Australian bonds to new theatres where individuals, companies and self-managed funds could acquire listed bonds.

Mr Stening is upbeat that the scheme would complement recent decisions by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to push further development of the retail corporate bond market.

He said that ASIC believes that corporate bonds should also be made available to retail investors and companies are bound to greatly benefits from such scheme.

Mr Stening revealed that it took the company months to develop its new DirectBonds service in order to hurdle technical obstacles imposed by the trading system, which discouraged any similar bonds service to be offered before.

Instead prospective investors had to turn their attention on bonds being issued by well-known companies such as Telstra, Macquarie Bank, AXA, GE Capital and Sydney Airports.

That changed in May when ASIC threw its support on the development of the retail bond market by removing restrictions and allowing listed companies to offer listed bonds to retail investors.

The securities watchdog encouraged listed companies to issue listed bonds as it eased disclosure requirements in order to permit short-form or two-part prospectuses, subject of course to specific conditions.