French Finance Minister Roland Lescure emphasized the need for more euro-denominated stablecoins and urged banks in EU countries to explore tokenized deposits, as reported by Reuters. This marks a potential shift in stance by the French government and its central bank.
Lescure expressed 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 US dominance in digital payments. "This is what we need and what we want," Lescure stated, also encouraging banks to further investigate tokenized deposits. He noted that the current volume of euro-pegged stablecoins is unsatisfactory compared to dollar-pegged ones. This stance diverges from the previous strict regulatory approach, led by former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who opposed privately-issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies.
More recently, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned of the potential threat of stablecoins and tokenized private money to monetary sovereignty.