According to Reuters, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure stated on Friday that Europe requires more stablecoins pegged to the euro and that EU banks should explore tokenized deposits. This announcement marks a potential shift in the French government's and its central bank's position. Lescure expressed his 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 investigate the launch of tokenized deposits. He noted that the relatively low volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to dollar-pegged ones is "unsatisfactory." Previously, former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire led a strict regulatory approach against privately issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, stating they had no place in Europe and threatened national sovereignty.
In 2023, Le Maire was linked to an EU document outlining the European Commission's plan to limit the widespread use of stablecoins as a replacement for traditional currency. 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 during a confrontation with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.