Dutch central bank shifts 86 tonnes of gold out of US and Canada, citing 'geopolitical unrest'

De Nederlandsche Bank has relocated 86 of the 313 tonnes of gold it held in New York and Ottawa, moving the bullion to the Bank of England between March and August. The bank framed the move as boosting ‘crisis preparedness’: London gold meets modern trade standards and is the most readily tradable, whereas reserves parked in North America can’t be mobilized quickly in an emergency. The transfer used two methods — selling 59 tonnes in New York and rebuying the equivalent in London, and physically shipping 27 tonnes home to Zeist before onward transfer — deliberately, so the DNB gains operational experience with both routes for any future relocation.

Analysts read the timing as a response to the Trump administration’s posture toward allies: tariffs on European nations, threats over Greenland and Canada, and eroding confidence in the independence of the US Federal Reserve. One security-affairs expert called reserves held on US soil a ‘potential vulnerability’ that Washington might weaponize. A Rabobank strategist added a purely financial rationale — gold is a zero-counterparty asset, unlike US Treasuries, which carry credit risk tied to the Fed and Treasury.

The Netherlands is not acting alone. France sold 129 tonnes of its New York reserves in 2025 and rebought in Paris; Germany repatriated 674 tonnes between 2013 and 2017, with economists pushing to bring home the remaining 1,236 tonnes; and Austria, Italy, Türkiye and others have signaled similar intent. Collectively the moves point to a structural shift, with central banks increasingly reluctant to store strategic assets on foreign — and specifically American — soil.