French Finance Minister Roland Lescure emphasized the need for more stablecoins pegged to the euro and encouraged European banks to explore tokenized deposits, marking a potential shift in the French government's policy. Lescure expressed support for a consortium of 12 European banks, including BBVA, ING, UniCredit, and BNP Paribas, which plan to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026 to counter US dominance in digital payments. "This is what we need, and this is what we want," Lescure stated, also urging banks to further investigate the launch of tokenized deposits. He noted that the current volume of euro-pegged stablecoins is unsatisfactory compared to dollar-pegged ones.
This stance differs from the previous strict regulatory approach, led by former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who opposed privately-issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies. More recently, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned of the potential threat of stablecoins and tokenized private money to monetary sovereignty.