De Nederlandsche Bank, the Dutch central bank, has spent the past several months quietly repositioning a large share of its gold reserves, shifting 86 tons out of vaults in New York and Ottawa and into the Bank of England's storage in London. The transfer took place gradually between March and August of this year.
The Dutch central bank holds 612 tons of gold in total. With the latest move complete, only about 18.5% of that stockpile remains stored in North America, a marked drop from where the bank stood at the start of the year.
In explaining the decision, the bank pointed to what it described as rising geopolitical instability and a desire to hold gold somewhere it can be moved or sold quickly if needed. Officials framed London as the more practical base for the metal, calling it easier to trade and faster to access in an emergency than reserves held across the Atlantic.
The Dutch are not alone in this. France's central bank, the Banque de France, sold off 129 tons of its own gold last year, roughly 5% of its total reserves, as European institutions more broadly reassess how and where they keep the metal.
The moves come against a backdrop of unease about the United States' financial position. Treasury yields have climbed, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has intervened directly in currency markets, and the national debt has pushed past $40 trillion, feeding a wider debate over Washington's fiscal trajectory and whether the dollar and U.S. based assets still deserve their traditional status as the world's safest harbor.
Paul Donovan, an economist at UBS, said the pattern of central banks pulling gold out of the United States should not be treated as routine. He described the behavior as "not normal" and said it raises real questions about how much confidence international institutions still place in the U.S. financial system.