Some 86 metric tons of gold left North America for London between March and August 2026, and nobody outside the Dutch central bank knew until it was done. De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) announced the move on September 2, calling it “crisis preparedness” in a time of political unrest. It is the latest sign that European central banks are rethinking where their bullion sits.
The Dutch numbers
The bank owns 612.4 metric tons of gold, worth 72.2 billion euros at the end of 2025. Before the move, New York held 31.3% of it and Ottawa 19.7%, a combined total of around 313 metric tons. Now both cities hold 18.5%.
Governor Olaf Sleijpen framed it as a matter of speed. “We expect that we will never need to use them, but we do need to strengthen our resilience and preparedness,” he said. Gold stored at the Bank of England meets modern international trade standards and is “regarded as the world’s most easily tradable gold,” the bank said, while the New York and Ottawa holdings “cannot be utilized as quickly and directly” in a crisis.
Shipping bars across the Atlantic was only part of the job. DNB said more than 27 metric tons were physically transferred to its vault on a military base near Zeist, with a similar quantity then sent from Zeist to London. The rest, around 59 metric tons, was handled on paper: the bank sold gold in New York and used the proceeds to buy gold in London. It gave no details on how the bars crossed the ocean.
France went first, Germany stays
The French central bank removed its remaining gold exposure at the New York Fed between July 2025 and January 2026. Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said at the time that politics was not behind it, Deutsche Welle reported.
Germany tells a different story. The Bundesbank brought about 300 tonnes home from the US between 2013 and 2017 but still holds well over 1,000 tonnes there. Its statement last year left no room for doubt: “We have no doubt that the New York Fed is a trustworthy and reliable partner for the safekeeping of our gold reserves.” Even so, politicians in Germany and Italy, which hold the second- and third-largest gold reserves in the world, have called for their countries’ gold to come out of the US. They cite the unpredictable policymaking of the Trump administration and its growing antipathy toward the European Union, including threats to annex part of Greenland.
Why London, and why now
Sebastien Tillett of Oxford Economics told DW that outright seizure is an “extremely remote risk.” The real worry, he said, is that assets “could become temporarily inaccessible in an extreme sanctions, legal or geopolitical scenario.”
The choice of London over home was deliberate. Krishnan Gopaul of the World Gold Council pointed out that the United Kingdom is “one of the most liquid trading hubs in the gold market.” The Bank of England holds an estimated 400,000 gold bars, worth around $270 billion. “In a time of crisis that is where you want your gold,” Gopaul said.
The wider buying trend backs the focus on storage. A World Gold Council survey found central banks have accumulated an average of 1,000 tonnes of gold over the past four years, double the 500-tonne average of the decade before.
Sources
- Why are European banks moving gold out of United States? | Deutsche Welle (republished by ABP Live)
- Dutch central bank shifts billions in gold to London in 'crisis preparedness' move | Associated Press
