The Netherlands and France have both moved significant gold reserves away from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in recent months, raising fresh questions about U.S. safe-haven status.
De Nederlandsche Bank completed a months-long relocation, withdrawing more than 78 tons of gold from the New York Fed and 7 tons from Ottawa, Canada, transferring all of it to the Bank of England in London.
Following the transfer, the share of Dutch gold held in New York dropped sharply, falling from 31.3% to just 18.5%, while Ottawa’s share also declined from 19.7% to 18.5%.
London has now become the Dutch central bank’s largest overseas gold custodian, with its share of Dutch reserves jumping from 18.1% to 32.1% after the transfers were completed.
The DNB cash center in Zeist, the Netherlands, still holds 30.8% of the country’s total gold reserves, keeping a significant portion of national wealth on home soil.
DNB Governor Olaf Sleijpen said the move was aimed at addressing an “increasingly volatile geopolitical environment” by distributing gold reserves more evenly across different jurisdictions to enhance the ability to mobilize them in a crisis.
France’s Banque de France completed a full withdrawal of its remaining 129 tonnes from the New York Fed, executing 26 separate transactions between July 2025 and January 2026.
The French operation generated estimated capital gains of between €11 billion and €13 billion, thanks to U.S. gold premiums at the time of each transfer, making the repatriation financially advantageous as well as strategic.
Bank of France Governor François Villeroy de Galhau said at the time that the move was not politically motivated, though the timing has drawn considerable scrutiny from analysts tracking dollar-system dynamics.
The World Gold Council’s June 2026 survey found that only 14% of central banks now store gold at the New York Fed, down from 17% the previous year, indicating a meaningful and accelerating shift in global custodial preferences.
The Bank of England, long considered the New York Fed’s chief rival as a gold custodian, also saw its share of central bank gold slip from 64% to 57%, suggesting the repatriation trend is broader than a simple New York-to-London transfer story.
Germany, which holds roughly 1,236 tonnes of gold in New York, is watching these developments closely, and internal political pressure to bring more reserves home has intensified following the Dutch and French moves.
Germany already repatriated about 300 tonnes back in 2017, setting a precedent that other European nations appear increasingly willing to follow as geopolitical tensions reshape reserve management strategies.
Central banks worldwide have been quietly repatriating gold in recent years, citing sovereignty, security, and a broader push to diversify away from a dollar-dominated financial system that many now view as carrying elevated political risk.
