According to recent reports, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure has emphasized the need for more euro-denominated stablecoins in Europe, urging banks across the EU to explore the potential of tokenized deposits. This shift in stance was apparent in Lescure's remarks on Friday, as reported by Reuters. The minister expressed his support for Qivalis, a consortium of 12 European banks, including prominent institutions such as BBVA, ING, UniCredit, and BNP Paribas, which plan 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.
Lescure stated, "This is what we need, and this is what we want." He also encouraged banks to further investigate the launch of tokenized deposits, citing the current low volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to those pegged to the US dollar as "unsatisfactory." This stance marks a departure from the previous strict regulatory approach, led by former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who had expressed concerns about the potential threat of privately-issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies to the sovereignty of nations. More recently, the Governor of the Bank of France, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, warned about the potential risks of stablecoins and tokenized private money, framing them as a threat to monetary sovereignty.