French Finance Minister Roland Lescure emphasized the need for more euro-issued stablecoins on Friday, as reported by Reuters, and encouraged banks in the EU to explore tokenized deposits. This signals a potential shift in the French government's and its central bank's stance. 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 encouraging banks to further explore the launch of tokenized deposits. The relatively low volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to dollar-pegged ones was deemed "not satisfactory" by Lescure. This stance differs from the previous strict regulatory approach against privately-issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies led by former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who claimed they posed a threat to national sovereignty.
More 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.