France: deputies push for digital currency
France is one of the countries in the debate on digital currencies from a Central Bank (Central Bank Digital Currency CBDC) and of course the controversial project Libra from Facebook on the Front line. This debate has recently gained momentum after a prominent French deputies Laure de La Raudiere and Pierre Person with France’s economy Minister Bruno Le Maire were met together, to discuss the benefits of the introduction of Blockchain technology in the banking sector, according to a report.
France was for a long time not a proponent of digital currencies. This has changed in the past year, however, abruptly. Indeed, France was one of the first countries to adopt the first rules for crypto Assets. Even the Governor of the Bank of France, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, has recently declared that digital currencies could be useful, but that the Central banks should the output be responsible and not private companies. This many experts interpreted as a direct shot at Facebook and its Libra project.
The Deputy Laure de La Raudière, which is expressed for some time about the benefits of the introduction of the Blockchain, and Pierre Person, a member of the French national Assembly, asked Bruno Le Maire to encourage banks to test digital stablecoins. This, according to the deputies, is very important for the development of the Blockchain Ecosystem and the anticipation of the arrival of foreign players in this area. According to the report, commented Pierre Person:
We do not have the will, to destabilize the business model of commercial banks, but they need to pick up at the initiative of the Central Bank, the question of whether the stable coins.
Laure de la Raudiere added that the French banks would have to take the lead. According to him, you have to find the Blockchain, how the technology works, to be able to introduce. Contrary to what the Governor of the Bank of France said, claimed the Deputy, however, that the commercial banks and the Central Bank should take the lead in digital currencies, with the help of the European Central Bank (ECB). The Deputy said:
It is the business of banks, the need to address the issue of digital currencies, but it must also give an impulse to the European Central Bank.
The last point that was discussed during the meeting, was a law that improved the legal security and the access of crypto-corporate-to-Bank services. One of the deputies explained that it was a law that needed to improve legal security and the access of companies with respect to crypto-currencies to Bank services:
We want to hold on to the Instrument of the Pacte law, because it appears to us to be solid. If the rules were changed without a legislative debate, there is both a lack of understanding of the actors, as well as a loss of competitiveness for France.
Interestingly, had discussed a recent study by the Bank of France study published also the possibility of the introduction of the CBDC by the ECB. In the study, it was stated that the output of the selected policies for the crypto would depend on the Asset, since it would have to be integrated in the existing provisions to avoid Amendments to the legal texts.
