Roland Lescure Urges EU Banks To Explore Tokenised Deposits And More Euro Stablecoins

France’s finance minister Roland Lescure called for more euro-denominated stablecoins and urged EU banks to explore tokenised deposits, framing the push as a shift in Paris’s stance toward digital money.

“France's finance minister calls for more euro stablecoins in sign of government policy shift The statements signal a potential shift in stance within the French government and its central bank”

@coindesk

In pre-recorded comments at a crypto conference in Paris, Lescure said, “Europe needs more euro-based stablecoins,” and added that the relatively small volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to dollar-pegged ones was “not satisfactory.”

@coindesk

Lescure also told the audience, “That is what we need and that is what we want,” while urging banks to “further explore the launch of tokenised deposits.”

The Reuters reporting reproduced in multiple outlets places the remarks on Friday, and describes them as a response to U.S. dominance in digital payments.

The same Reuters material says Lescure backed Qivalis, a consortium of 12 European banks planning to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026.

The consortium is described as including BBVA, ING, UniCredit and BNP Paribas, and its stated aim is to counter U.S. dominance in digital payments.

The policy direction is also tied to the idea of keeping Europe’s digital payments rails denominated in euros rather than dollars, as the outlets describe Lescure’s emphasis on euro-based stablecoins and tokenised deposits.

Lescure’s call for euro stablecoins arrives after earlier French and EU skepticism toward privately issued stablecoins, which officials had warned could threaten monetary sovereignty and lead to the privatization of money.

CoinDesk’s account says former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire spearheaded a strict regulatory stance against privately issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, saying they “had no place on European soil” and were a threat to “the sovereignty of nations.”

CoinCentral

CoinDesk also says that in 2023 Le Maire was linked to a EU document revealing the European Commission’s plan to halt stablecoins from becoming widely used in place of fiat currency.

The same Reuters-based reporting in Global Banking & Finance Review® describes the broader context as Europe trying to reduce reliance on non-European payment providers amid tense relations with the U.S. and concerns about fragmentation of EU payments services.

It also notes that the European Central Bank has been developing a digital euro to preserve the role of central bank money in a digital economy, while progress in European Parliament has been slow and some bank lobbies have resisted the plans.

In the Reuters material, Lescure’s support is not only for euro stablecoins but also for the ECB’s direction on tokenisation, with Lescure saying he supported ECB plans to put a digital central bank currency at the centre of tokenisation efforts, calling it “the right balance.”

The outlets also connect the shift to U.S. regulatory developments, with Global Banking & Finance Review® saying that U.S. President Donald Trump last year signed a law establishing rules for stablecoins.

The euro stablecoin push is presented alongside explicit warnings from France’s central bank governor about the political risks of stablecoins and tokenized private money.

“France's finance minister calls for more euro stablecoins in sign of government policy shift The statements signal a potential shift in stance within the French government and its central bank”

CoinDesk

CoinDesk reports that Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned during a live confrontation with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong over stablecoins and yields, saying stablecoins and tokenized private money could accelerate what he framed as a political threat.

In that account, Villeroy de Galhau said, “The first threat is privatization of money, and loss of monetary sovereignty,” and the Reuters-based material in CoinDesk frames the warning as grouping stablecoins with tokenized private money.

At the same time, Lescure’s remarks are described as supportive of a bank-led approach through Qivalis, with Reuters reporting in Global Banking & Finance Review® quoting Lescure’s “That is what we need and that is what we want” and his encouragement to explore tokenised deposits.

The Qivalis consortium is described across outlets as including ING, UniCredit and BNP Paribas, and as forming a company to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026.

Global Banking & Finance Review® adds that tokenisation refers to creating blockchain-based tokens to stand in for existing financial assets, and it links the push to European policymakers trying to reduce reliance on non‑European payment providers.

The same Reuters-based reporting also provides a snapshot of the scale of existing stablecoins, saying Tether says it has more than $185 billion of its dollar-pegged tokens in circulation and that Societe Generale says its euro-pegged stablecoin, launched in 2023, has just 107 million euros ($126 million) in circulation.

While the core Reuters-based facts about Lescure, Qivalis, and tokenised deposits are consistent, the outlets differ in emphasis and additional claims about regulatory framing and market context.

CoinDesk describes Lescure’s statements as “a potential shift in stance within the French government and its central bank,” and it highlights that Lescure backed Qivalis to counter U.S. dominance in digital payments.

crypto.news

CoinCentral similarly frames the remarks as a “policy shift,” but it adds that Lescure’s support suggests a departure from France’s earlier resistance to privately issued digital money and says he “explicitly endorsed the Qivalis initiative.”

Global Banking & Finance Review® stays closest to the Reuters text, presenting Lescure’s comments at a crypto conference in Paris and embedding them in a broader explanation of stablecoin market dominance, including that stablecoin market is dominated by El Salvador-based Tether.

The crypto.news outlet adds a regulatory gloss, stating that Qivalis is targeting a “MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin launch” in the second half of 2026 and describing the move as “a departure from France’s earlier hardline stance.”

It also claims Qivalis is “working toward regulatory approval from the Dutch central bank” and aims to operate as an electronic money institution, with CEO Jan-Oliver Sell calling a native euro stablecoin “a major turning point for digital commerce and financial innovation in Europe.”

Across the coverage, however, the shared anchor remains Lescure’s quoted lines—“Europe needs more euro-based stablecoins” and “not satisfactory”—and the repeated timeline for Qivalis’s planned launch in the second half of 2026.

The immediate consequence of Lescure’s remarks is a push for European banks to accelerate euro-based stablecoin and tokenised deposit work, with Qivalis positioned as the vehicle for a euro-pegged stablecoin launch in the second half of 2026.

“France’s finance minister calls for a stronger euro-based stablecoin sector and urges banks to explore tokenised deposits to reduce reliance on US dollar–pegged stablecoins”

Global Banking & Finance Review®

Reuters-based reporting in Global Banking & Finance Review® says Lescure supported ECB plans to put a digital central bank currency at the centre of tokenisation efforts, calling it “the right balance,” and it describes tokenisation as blockchain-based tokens standing in for existing financial assets.

Global Banking & Finance Review®

The same Reuters material notes that the stablecoin market is dominated by Tether, and it provides a contrast in circulation figures, with Tether’s more than $185 billion of dollar-pegged tokens and Societe Generale’s 107 million euros ($126 million) euro-pegged stablecoin in circulation.

CoinDesk and CoinCentral both emphasize that Lescure urged EU banks to explore tokenised deposits and that he said the “relatively small volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to dollar-pegged ones was "not satisfactory".”

The stakes are framed in terms of monetary sovereignty and the risk of “privatization of money, and loss of monetary sovereignty,” as Villeroy de Galhau warned in the Coinbase confrontation.

At the same time, the outlets describe the policy direction as an attempt to counter U.S. dominance in digital payments, with Qivalis aiming to do so through a euro-pegged stablecoin launch planned for the second half of 2026.

The coverage also points to the regulatory environment, including the mention in Global Banking & Finance Review® that U.S. President Donald Trump signed a law establishing rules for stablecoins, and the crypto.news account’s reference to MiCA compliance.