CFTC chairman Gary Gensler has stated his support for a corporate exclusion–a stance expected to be reflected the CFTC's proposal. However, the CFTC regulates only nonbank financial institutions, which typically deal in energy and agricultural swaps.

Companies that are hedging interest-rate and currency risks–two of the biggest over-the-counter derivatives markets–use bank counterparties, whose regulators are expected to require them to impose margin requirements on corporate customers if the swaps are not cleared by a registered clearing agency.

The requirements, however, are expected to be limited to circumstances in which the corporate customer's net mark-to-market derivatives exposure exceeds specified thresholds.

“This is where the only silver lining shows up,” says Luke Zubrod, director at Chatham Financial. “So even though the [banking] regulators believe they are required to impose margin, given the legislative text, their proposal will attempt to reflect that end users don't contribute meaningfully to systemic risk.”

Tom Deas, treasurer at FMC Corp. and president of the National Association of Corporate Treasurers, says for corporate users, a continuing concern is “when at the very time companies could least afford demand on their liquidity–during a crisis–the [regulators] would lower that threshold.”

Deas will represent corporate end users at the Senate hearing.