According to Reuters, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure stated on Friday that the European Union needs more stablecoins pegged to the euro, and EU banks should investigate tokenized deposits. This announcement marks a potential shift in the French government's and its central bank's stance on the matter.
Lescure expressed his support for Qivalis, a consortium of 12 European banks, including BBVA, ING, UniCredit, and BNP Paribas, which plans 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 said, also encouraging banks to explore the launch of tokenized deposits further. He noted that the relatively low volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to dollar-pegged ones is "unsatisfactory." The French government's previous stance on privately-issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies was strict, with former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire stating they had no place in Europe and threatened national sovereignty.
More recently, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned that stablecoins and tokenized private money could accelerate the threat of privatization of money and loss of monetary sovereignty.