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Stablecoins: how can Europe combine innovation, sovereignty, efficiency and financial stability?

Day 2 Afternoon

Thursday 17 September

Location :

ROOM 2

Speakers

Public Authorities
José Maria Brandão de Brito
Deputy Minister and for the Budget - Ministry of Finance, Portugal
Oliver Gilvarry
Assistant Secretary General with Responsibility for Banking - Department of Finance, Ireland
Leena Mörttinen
Permanent Under-Secretary - Ministry of Finance, Finland
Rolf Strauch
Chief Economist and Management Board Member - European Stability Mechanism (ESM)
Karlheinz Walch
Director General Banking and Financial Supervision Directorate - Deutsche Bundesbank
Industry Representatives
Laurent Bertonnaud
Head of Digital and French Public Affairs - BNP Paribas
Jonah Crane
Head of Global Regulatory and Policy Development - Stripe
Vathany Vijayaratna
Chief Executive Officer, UK and Ireland - Deutsche Bank AG

Session overview

Objectives

The session will first assess the role that euro-denominated stablecoins could play in Europe's future tokenised financial ecosystem and how Europe can develop a competitive euro-denominated settlement layer while avoiding dependence on USD stablecoin infrastructures. Participants will examine how euro stablecoins should coexist with wholesale central bank money and tokenised bank deposits, and identify the architecture, standards and public-private arrangements needed to ensure scalable, interoperable and internationally usable settlement assets.

The session will then discuss how the EU should adapt its regulatory and prudential framework to enable euro-denominated stablecoins to scale safely while preserving innovation, monetary sovereignty and financial stability. The discussion will examine issues such as access to central bank services, prudential and AML safeguards, the interaction with tokenised deposits, and possible adjustments to MiCA, with a view to identifying priorities for the next 12–24 months.

 

Points of discussion

  1.  How can Europe establish a competitive euro-denominated settlement layer for stablecoins and tokenised finance while avoiding lock-in to USD stablecoin infrastructures? Which instruments (CBDC wholesale, tokenised deposits, euro stablecoins)? Which architecture (Pontes, Appia, private infrastructure, public/private articulation)? What conditions for success (standards, interoperability, liquidity, governance, adoption)?

  2.  How should Europe recalibrate its regulatory and prudential framework so that euro stablecoins can scale safely while supporting innovation, efficiency and monetary sovereignty, without undermining financial stability, bank intermediation and the singleness of money?