In September, nine EU banks unveiled plans for a Euro stablecoin consortium: Banca Sella, CaixaBank, Danske Bank, DekaBank, ING, KBC, Raiffeisen Bank International, SEB and UniCredit. It is now joined by a tenth member, BNP Paribas, which is also part of a separate ten bank international stablecoin consortium.
The EU consortium has evolved into a joint venture. It has been incorporated as Qivalis in the Netherlands and is preparing to apply to De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) for an e-money issuer license. The company expects to launch the MiCA-compliant stablecoin in the second half of 2026, pending regulatory approval.
The key management team was also revealed. Sir Howard Davies, former Chairman of Natwest Group and the Financial Services Authority is the Qivalis Chair. Jan-Oliver Sell becomes CEO, having served as managing director of Coinbase Germany until earlier this year. The CFO responsible for overseeing the reserves is Floris Lugt who led Digital Assets for Wholesale Banking at ING and has treasury management experience.
Qivalis will operate as a utility without the need to make significant profits, although it does aim to cover costs. Given that a stablecoin issuer makes most of its revenues from reserves, the makeup of the backing assets is highly relevant. One might expect the reserves to be held primarily at member banks. However, while Qivalis will maintain a mix of bank deposits and high quality liquid assets, the deposits will not necessarily be placed at member banks. A key selection criterion for placing bank deposits will be to minimize risks.
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