Business
French Unions Protest Labour Bill
Hardline trade unions staged protests across France last Tuesday against an overhaul of labour rules expected to be passed by parliament later in the day.
It is a show of force they hoped would mobilise public opinion for further labour action.
The lower house of parliament, where President Francois Hollande’s Socialist government has a slim majority, is expected to pass his measures loosening firing and hiring rules, opening the way for a Senate vote on April 17.
Some trade unions, led by the left-wing CGT and backed by hard-left allies in parliament, were determined to stir up opposition against what they called a “traitorous” bill, with marches in up to 170 towns and cities.
In the Mediterranean city of Marseille, thousands marched bearing banners with the words “No to breaking the labour code’’, seen as the most comprehensive labour reforms since World War Two. “We won’t let anything part us,’’ regional CGT chief Mireille Chessa told reporters. Accusations from the left that Hollande has abandoned Socialism could weigh on his already dismal approval ratings close to 30 per cent and hurt his party’s performance in municipal elections next year.
Left-wingers are already finding some of the president’s economic policies, such as raising sales tax to fund a reduction in company labour costs, hard to swallow.
Hollande also came under fresh fire this week after his former budget minister admitted he had lied for months about the existence of a secret foreign bank account.
Public opinion on the reforms is divided, but a survey by pollster BVA in March found that 62 per cent of respondents supported passing the bill, making it more popular with the French than Hollande himself.
“The point is to make workers aware of the impact this is going to have on their daily lives,’’ Thierry Lepaon, head of the CGT union, told Canal+ television.
Nationwide protests last month against the labour bill drew 200,000 participants, according to a CGT estimate a modest turnout explained by the fact that members of the moderate CFDT union did not participate.
Cornerstone of Financial Services
A survey of more than 1 000 global finance leaders undertaken by digital payment network Ripple shows that 72% of respondents believe they need to offer a digital asset solution to remain competitive.
According to Ripple, leaders from the banking, fintech, corporate and asset management sector have made it clear that the “digital asset revolution is happening now”.
“Digital assets are quickly becoming a cornerstone of financial services, underpinned by progressive regulation, growing interest from Tier-1 banks, a steady consumer shift from banks to fintech providers, and booming stablecoin adoption,” Ripple says.
The survey was conducted in early 2026 and the findings released in March.
Stablecoin Boon or Bane?
Ripple has experienced significant success in the stablecoin sector since launching its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in 2024.
With a market cap of $1.56 billion, it is considered a major regulated player in the market.
No doubt the platform was pleased to learn through its own survey that financial leaders were most bullish about stablecoins.
Roughly three-quarters of respondents believed they could boost cash-flow efficiency and unlock trapped working capital.
Ripple noted that finance leaders were thinking about stablecoins as more than “just a new way to execute payments”; instead, they viewed them as effective tools for treasury management.
In March 2026, Ripple began testing a new trade finance model built around RLUSD in a bid to increase the speed of cross-border payments.
The pilot initiative, developed alongside supply chain finance company Unloq [https://unloq.com], is running on the XRP Ledger inside a testing framework developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The Asian city-state is one of the platform’s biggest growth markets.
The idea behind the project is to see whether stablecoin-based settlement can streamline trade finance, too often hampered by reliance on intermediaries and slow reconciliation.
The only potential drawback is that if the initiative takes off, the Ripple to USD price could be negatively affected.
Ripple has always championed its native XRP token as a bridge asset, the “middleman” in the process of a financial institution turning dollars in the US into pounds in the UK, for example.
Ripple converts dollars into XRP and then back into pounds.
If RLUSD can do exactly the same thing, questions will be asked about XRP’s relevance.
That is a bridge Ripple will have to cross if it gets to that point.
Tokenisation Partners
Another interesting finding from Ripple’s survey is that most banks and asset managers are seeking tokenisation partners to help execute their strategies.
Some 89% of respondents said digital asset storage and custody were top priority. “Token servicing/lifecycle management also ranks highly for banks at 82%, while asset managers place greater emphasis on primary distribution at 80%,” Ripple found.
The survey also revealed that just more than half of fintechs and financial institutions want an infrastructure provider that can offer a “one-stop-shop solution”. This rose to 71% among corporate financial leaders.
Ripple attributes this to institutions and firms wanting uncomplicated, cohesive systems.
Infrastructure Rules
In its final analysis, Ripple says companies across the board are looking for partners and solutions that are “secure, compliant, battle-tested and that enable growth and execution”.
“The message is clear: infrastructure decisions made today will shape competitive positioning tomorrow.”
No surprise that this is precisely where Ripple is placing much of its focus.