Why Europe’s gold is on the move
Why Europe’s gold is on the move newspress_en Wed, 10/07/2026 - 04:10 Business & Economy On 2 September, the Dutch central bank announced that it had quietly moved around 86 tonnes of its gold from New York and Ottawa to London between March and August of this year. It said the aim was not to repatriate the gold to the Netherlands, but to improve its liquidity and tradability, strengthen crisis…
Europe's gold reserves are undergoing a strategic shift, with central banks moving around 86 tonnes of their gold from New York and Ottawa to London since September 2025. The Dutch central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank, transferred 86 tonnes of its gold between March and August 2026, moving 27 tonnes physically to Zeist and the rest to London.
This redistribution aims to improve liquidity, tradability, crisis preparedness, and risk distribution among storage locations. London now holds 32.1% of the Netherlands' gold reserves, while New York and Ottawa each retain 18.5%. This trend of diversifying gold storage locations is observed in other central banks as well, with 10% of surveyed banks having diversified their gold storage in the past year and 9% planning to do so soon.
France, for instance, sold its remaining 129 tonnes of gold in New York and repurchased European bullion meeting London Bullion Market Association standards, generating a €12.8bn capital gain. Germany, on the other hand, has repatriated 674 tonnes of gold to Frankfurt since 2013, but this move is not indicative of a broader European policy.
Instead, each country determines its gold storage strategy based on security, liquidity, and tradability considerations. Holding gold in multiple locations can reduce geographical concentration risk and mitigate the costs associated with physically transporting large quantities of gold.
Written by urgent.news from Al Majalla English's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
