End users such as Lufthansa, Rolls Royce, Caterpillar and the like are being offered exemption from clearing requirements that dealers are likely to face in OTC derivatives. The European regulators appear to be moving in this direction, but only subject to some important checks: audit/accounting reports to detect end users are hedging or speculating, or restrictions on size of transactions.
See the FT article.
These checks to ensure that OTC end-user exemption is not abused mirror closely the proposals made by the Stern Working Group on the financial crisis in their assessment of the end-user exemption in discussion of House and Senate Bills: http://govtpolicyrecs.stern.nyu.edu/docs/whitepapers_ebook_chapter_16.pdf
