French Finance Minister Roland Lescure emphasized the need for more euro-denominated stablecoins in Europe and encouraged banks to explore tokenized deposits, as reported by Reuters. This statement suggests a possible shift in the French government's and its central bank's approach. 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. 'That's what we need, and that's what we want,' Lescure stated, also urging banks to further investigate the launch of tokenized deposits.
He deemed the current volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to dollar-pegged ones as 'unsatisfactory'. This stance differs from the previous strict regulatory approach led by former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who opposed privately-issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, citing threats to national sovereignty.
More recently, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned that stablecoins could accelerate the privatization of money and loss of monetary sovereignty during a discussion with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.