France's political and business establishment has hit out against the hegemony of the dollar in international transactions after U.S. authorities fined BNP Paribas $9 billion for helping countries avoid sanctions. Michel Sapin, the French finance minister, called for a "rebalancing" of the currencies used for global payments, saying the BNP Paribas case should "make us realize the necessity of using a variety of currencies". He said, in an interview with the Financial Times on the sidelines of a weekend economics conference: "We [Europeans] are selling to ourselves in dollars, for instance when we sell planes. Is that necessary? I don't think so. I think a rebalancing is possible and necessary, not just regarding the euro but also for the big currencies of the emerging countries, which account for more and more of global trade." Read MoreEurope's 'sick man' fights housing crisis Christophe de Margerie, the chief executive of Total, France's biggest company by market capitalization, said he saw no reason for oil purchases to be made in dollars, even if the benchmark price in dollars was likely to remain.

Ziquiu | IStock/360 | Getty Images

"The price of a barrel of oil is quoted in dollars," he said. "A refinery can take that price and using the exchange rate on any given day, agree to make the payment in euros."

One chief executive of a CAC 40 industrial group said he supported Mr Sapin's push. Read MoreMarkets may jolteuro area's loose players "Companies like ours are in a bind because we sell a lot in dollars but we do not always want to deal with all the US rules and regulations," he said. The uproar over the BNP fine at the usually sedate Cercle des Economistes conference in Aix-en-Provence highlighted what has become yet another friction point in transatlantic relations. French officials lobbied heavily on behalf of the country's largest bank and argued that BNP broke no European rules, prompting a debate about whether it had been the victim of U.S. judicial over-reach. Mr Sapin said he would raise the need for a weightier alternative to the dollar with fellow eurozone finance ministers when they meet in Brussels on Monday, although he declined to go into detail about what practical steps might emerge.