French Finance Minister Roland Lescure emphasized the need for more euro-denominated stablecoins in Europe and encouraged banks across the EU to explore tokenized deposits, as reported by Reuters. This statement marks a potential shift in the French government's and its central bank's stance on the matter. 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 stated, also urging 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 was "unsatisfactory." This stance diverges from the previous strict regulatory approach led by former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who had expressed concerns about the impact of privately-issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies on European sovereignty.
More recently, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned about the potential threat of stablecoins and tokenized private money to monetary sovereignty during a discussion with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.