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 announcement suggests a potential shift in the stance of the French government and its central bank.
Lescure expressed his 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. The goal is to counter the dominance of the US in digital payments.
Lescure emphasized, "This is what we need, and this is what we want." He also urged banks to explore the launch of tokenized deposits further. The relatively low volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to those pegged to the US dollar was deemed "unsatisfactory" by Lescure. This stance marks a departure from the previous strict regulatory approach, led by former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who argued that privately issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies 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 loss of monetary sovereignty, framing it as a political threat.