According to recent reports, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure has expressed his support for the development of more euro-pegged stablecoins in Europe. Lescure emphasized the need for European banks to explore tokenized deposits, as reported by Reuters on Friday.
This shift in stance may signal a new direction for the French government and its central bank. Lescure has voiced his backing for Qivalis, a consortium of 12 European banks, including prominent institutions such as BBVA, ING, UniCredit, and BNP Paribas, as they prepare to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the latter half of 2026. The aim of this initiative is to counter the dominance of the US in the digital payments landscape. "This is what we need, and this is what we want," Lescure stated, also encouraging banks to delve deeper into the launch of tokenized deposits.
He further noted that the current volume of euro-pegged stablecoins is "not satisfactory" when compared to their dollar-pegged counterparts. This stance marks a departure from the previous strict regulatory approach led by former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who had expressed strong reservations about privately-issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, viewing them as a threat to national sovereignty. More recently, the Governor of the Bank of France, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, warned about the potential risks of stablecoins and tokenized private money, citing the threat of monetary sovereignty loss.