According to Reuters, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure emphasized the need for more euro-denominated stablecoins and urged banks across the EU to explore the potential of tokenized deposits. This statement marks a potential shift in the French government's and its central bank's approach to digital currencies. 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 the dominance of the US in digital payments.
"This is what we need, and this is what we want," Lescure stated, also encouraging banks to further investigate the launch of tokenized deposits. He noted that the relatively low volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to dollar-pegged ones is "unsatisfactory." This stance differs from that of former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who previously advocated for strict regulations against privately issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, citing threats to national sovereignty.
More recently, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned that stablecoins and tokenized private money could lead to the privatization of money and a loss of monetary sovereignty.