According to recent reports, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure has emphasized the need for a greater number of euro-denominated stablecoins, urging European banks to explore the potential of tokenized deposits. This development may indicate a shift in the French government's policy direction. Lescure expressed his support for Qivalis, a consortium of 12 European banks, including prominent institutions such as BBVA, ING, UniCredit, and BNP Paribas, which plans to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026.
The goal of this initiative is to counterbalance the dominance of the US in the digital payments sector. The Minister stated, "This is what we need, and this is what we want." He also encouraged banks to further investigate the launch of tokenized deposits.
Lescure noted that the current volume of euro-pegged stablecoins is relatively low compared to those pegged to the US dollar, describing this situation as "not satisfactory." Previously, the French government had adopted a strict regulatory approach to privately issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, with the former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire stating that they had no place in Europe and posed a threat to national sovereignty. In 2023, Le Maire was involved in a European Commission plan to limit the widespread use of stablecoins as a substitute for traditional currency. More recently, the Governor of the Bank of France, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, warned about the potential risks of stablecoins and tokenized private money, citing the threat of monetary sovereignty loss and the privatization of money.