According to Reuters, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure stated on Friday that Europe requires more stablecoins pegged to the euro, and EU banks should investigate tokenized deposits. This statement may signal a shift in the French government's and its central bank's stance on the matter.
Lescure expressed his support for Qivalis, a consortium of 12 European banks, including BBVA, ING, UniCredit, and BNP Paribas, which plan to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026. The goal is to counter the dominance of the US in digital payments. Lescure stated, "That is what we need and that is what we want. I also strongly encourage banks to further explore the launch of tokenized deposits." He noted that the relatively low 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, viewing them as 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.