According to Reuters, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure stated on Friday that Europe requires more euro-issued stablecoins and that banks across EU countries should explore tokenized deposits. This announcement may signal a shift in the French government's and its central bank's stance on digital currencies.
Lescure expressed 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 further explore the launch of tokenized deposits. He noted that the relatively small volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to dollar-pegged ones is "not satisfactory".
In contrast to the previous strict regulatory stance against privately-issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, Lescure's comments may indicate a more open approach. Former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire had previously stated that such currencies "had no place on European soil" and posed a threat to "the sovereignty of nations". 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.