The Forex news outlet FXStreet reported on last Thursday that French lawmakers just passed a new law that enables the French insurance markets to invest in cryptocurrencies.
This is a very progressive position from the National Assembly of France. The law was adopted in that very same day, and its purpose is to stimulate development in local businesses by several financial mechanisms. Redirecting personal savings into firms is one among them. According to Reuters, the bill passed quickly as it had 147 favorable votes with only 50 against it.
The new law is called “Plan d’action pour la croissance et la transformation des enterprises,” (Active plan for the growth and transformation of businesses). It allows insurance providers within France to put money in cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin) in the amount they chose (that is, without any limits). The investments in question are to be done through specialized professional funds. And it opened the door for insurers to offer life insurance products denominated in cryptocurrencies.
The deputy and budget manager of La République (Emmanuel Macron’s party, which is currently in power), Joel Giraud, authenticated the news. He acknowledged the bits and pieces in the new law related to crypto, but he was quite clear in that including crypto as an option for insurance companies was not the main point in the “Pacte.”
The driving idea in the new law is to affect the privatization process within the country. It includes the sale of equity in the airports’ group ADP and to transfer that money into a new fund devoted to pushing innovation forward.
But France is not all that progressive about everything in the cryptoverse. Last month, for instance, Eric Woerth, who heads the Finance Committee in the National Assembly tried to have Monero and ZCash banned because both blockchains prioritize anonymity in transfers and ownership above all else.
The news is relevant to the cryptoverse as a whole because the new law will facilitate the arrival of French institutional money into the cryptocurrency market. If French insurers take the opportunity seriously, they could bring a lot of money and trading volume into the market. If they come in strong, they could trigger the cryptoverse’s next big bull run. Of course, it’s too early to think that it will actually happen, as the news is still too fresh to affect significant changes in French capital flows.
Another thing to take into account is France’s new relevance as Europe’s financial hub. For centuries, the leading European center for money and Economics was London. That seemed to be written in stone until the last few months. Brexit has caused so much uncertainty about England’s future that a lot of the UK’s financial activity has migrated to Paris because investors want to be sure that their money will remain in the European Union regardless of British political developments.
Last but not least. France’s position is very influential in Europe because it’s the continent’s largest economy (along with Germany). So if France takes a more welcoming stance towards cryptocurrencies, the rest of the old continent could at least consider following suit, especially if Germany jumps in the crypto wagon as well.
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