According to recent reports, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure emphasized the need for more euro-backed stablecoins in the European Union, encouraging banks to explore the use of tokenized deposits. This statement may indicate a shift in the French government's and central bank's policy towards stablecoins.
Lescure expressed his support for Qivalis, a consortium of 12 European banks planning to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026, aiming to counter the dominance of the US in digital payments. The minister stated, 'That's what we need, and that's what we want.' He also urged banks to further investigate the launch of tokenized deposits. Lescure noted that the relatively low volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to dollar-pegged ones is 'not satisfactory.' This stance differs from the previous strict regulatory approach towards privately issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, led by former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who considered them a threat to national sovereignty. More recently, the Governor of the Bank of France, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, warned that stablecoins could accelerate the privatization of money and loss of monetary sovereignty.