Why Europe is rethinking where it keeps its gold

Gold occupies an unusual place in a central bank’s reserves. Unlike most financial assets, its value does not depend on another institution’s promise to pay. Yet that independence becomes more complicated when the bars sit thousands of miles away under another country’s jurisdiction.

The physical location of Europe’s gold is once again becoming a matter of national strategy.  Between March and August 2026, the Netherlands shifted about 86 tonnes from the United States and Canada toward London, citing rising geopolitical unrest and the need to make its reserves more readily available during a crisis. France, meanwhile, completed the withdrawal of its remaining gold from New York between July 2025 and January 2026.

The reconsideration comes amid a revival in central-bank demand. Central banks bought 288.9 tonnes of gold in the second quarter of 2026, 62% more than during the same period last year, according to the World Gold Council’s July 2026 Gold Demand Trends report. A June survey found that 89% of central banks expected global holdings to rise over the following 12 months.

Wars in Ukraine and Iran, the freezing of Russian central-bank assets and mounting strains between the United States and its traditional allies have made access to national reserves more than an abstract concern. Gold is supposed to offer security when financial and political conditions deteriorate, but where it is stored determines how that security works in practice. A decision once treated largely as a matter of reserve management is becoming a judgment about which countries can be trusted to hold national wealth in a crisis.

The Dutch calculation

The destination of the Dutch gold is as significant as its departure from North America.

De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the Dutch central bank, holds 612.4 tonnes of gold, valued at €72.2 billion at the end of 2025. Before the shift, 313 tonnes, just over half the total, were stored in New York and Ottawa.

The change substantially altered where Dutch gold sits. London’s share rose from 18.1% to 32.1%, while New York’s fell from 31.3% to 18.5% and Ottawa’s from 19.7% to 18.5%. The share kept in the Netherlands remained at 30.8%.

Most of the operation did not involve moving gold across the Atlantic. DNB sold approximately 59 tonnes in New York and bought the same amount in London. More than 27 tonnes moved from North America to the Netherlands, while a similar quantity moved from the Netherlands to London.

As one of the world’s main centers for trading physical gold, London allows reserves to be put to use more readily. DNB said its holdings in New York and Ottawa could not be accessed as quickly in a crisis. The move therefore reduces Dutch dependence on North America without retreating from foreign storage.

Why gold lives abroad

Europe’s gold accumulated in New York at a time when distance from Europe was itself a form of protection.

New York Fed holdings grew during and after World War II, peaking at more than 12,000 tonnes in 1973. As of 2024, the vault contained approximately 507,000 bars weighing 6,331 metric tonnes, the world’s largest known store of monetary gold. The New York Fed holds it on behalf of governments, central banks and international organizations.

The appeal is not only security. Gold kept in a major financial center can be sold or transferred without first moving across borders. Keeping every bar at home offers greater physical control but makes reserves harder to use rapidly.

Not every European central bank has reached the same conclusion as the Netherlands. Banca d’Italia said last week that it had made no transfer following the Dutch decision. It keeps 44.8% of its gold in Italy and 43.2% in the United States, with another 5.7% in the United Kingdom and 6.09% in Switzerland. 

As sanctions and asset freezes become more prominent tools of statecraft, the country in which gold is stored can matter almost as much as the security of the vault itself. 

Gold in an age of geopolitical risk

Central banks were already accumulating gold before the latest debate over where to keep it. 

Their purchases have averaged roughly 1,000 tonnes a year over the past four years, about twice the annual average of the preceding decade, according to the World Gold Council’s June 2026 Central Bank Gold Reserves Survey. A record 45% of the 76 central banks surveyed expected their own gold holdings to increase over the following 12 months.

Geopolitics has become an important part of that calculation. The European Central Bank’s June 2026 The International Role of the Euro report found that 70% of surveyed central banks considered geopolitics their most significant risk in 2026, while almost 80% had incorporated geopolitical considerations into their reserve strategies.

Yet war does not necessarily send the price of gold higher. Gold initially rose after the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began on Feb. 28, but reversed as higher energy prices raised fears of persistent inflation and higher interest rates. By March 23, prices had fallen 15% since the war began and stood 22% below their January record, according to Reuters.

The episode illustrates the difference between gold’s short-term market price and its role in central-bank reserves. War can drive investors toward gold while also producing economic pressures that push its price down. Central banks, by contrast, manage reserves over decades, concerned not only with value but with whether those reserves will remain accessible when needed.

Europe is not engaged in a wholesale withdrawal of gold from the United States. The Dutch move instead suggests a selective reassessment of a system built when security, deep financial markets and confidence in allies made New York and London natural places to store national wealth.

The gold itself may be among the oldest constants in the international monetary system. The judgment of where it is safest to keep it is proving far less permanent.