According to Reuters, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure emphasized the need for more euro-issued stablecoins and encouraged banks in the EU to explore tokenized deposits on Friday. This marks a potential shift in the French government and central bank's stance on the issue. 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 explore the launch of tokenized deposits. He noted that the relatively small volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to dollar-pegged ones is "not satisfactory". This stance differs from that of former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who previously advocated for strict regulations against privately-issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, citing threats to European sovereignty. More recently, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned that stablecoins and tokenized private money could accelerate the loss of monetary sovereignty, framing it as a political threat.