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ECB signals EU finance ministers that easing euro stablecoin rules would weaken banks: Reuters
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The European Central Bank rebuffed a proposal Friday that would have eased liquidity requirements for euro stablecoin issuers and opened a path for them to tap ECB liquidity, according to a citing three people familiar with the closed-door discussions.
Key facts
- Global stablecoin supply expanded by roughly a third in 2025 to $300 billion, per Artemis data cited in the Bruegel paper and flagged by Reuters
- The group counts BNP Paribas, ING, UniCredit, CaixaBank, and Danske Bank among its founders, and recently added ABN Amro, Rabobank, Nordea, and Intesa Sanpaolo
- Europe-based stablecoin activity nonetheless punched above its weight in the final quarter of 2025, accounting for 38% of global transaction volume, Reuters said
- The pushback lands as the European Commission reviews its Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), in force since 2024, which requires stablecoin issuers to hold a large share of reserves in bank
Summary
The pitch came from a policy brief by Brussels think tank Bruegel, presented to EU finance ministers and central bank governors at a two-day informal meeting in Nicosia, Cyprus. ECB President Christine Lagarde and several other central bankers pushed back on the proposal in the room, according to the report. Several officials also balked at the idea of turning the ECB into a backstop for stablecoin firms, a role traditionally limited to supervised banks, per the report. The intervention extends a position Lagarde laid out earlier this month at a Banco de España forum, where she argued that any benefit a euro stablecoin might bring to the currency's international standing is outweighed by the risks to financial stability and monetary-policy transmission.