De Nederlandsche Bank has moved 86 tonnes of its gold reserves from the US and Canada to London, saying increasing geopolitical unrest made it important to hold more gold where it could be traded quickly. The Dutch central bank said London would allow it to deploy the reserves more rapidly in a crisis situation.
How the Dutch gold reserves are now distributed
The Netherlands held 612.4 tonnes of gold worth €72.2bn ($83.7bn) at the end of 2025, according to DNB. After the adjustment, New York and Ottawa each hold 18.5% of the reserve, while London’s share has risen from 18.1% to 32.1%. The Netherlands retains 30.8%.
The operation took place between March and August. DNB said more than 27 tonnes of physical gold was moved from the United States and Canada to Zeist, with the same quantity then sent from Zeist to London. Other parts of the transaction were completed through buying and selling, avoiding the need to melt down gold bars.
Why DNB changed the storage locations
DNB president Olaf Sleijpen said the move strengthened the bank’s resilience and preparedness, although the bank assumes it will never need to deploy the gold. The bank said combining physical transport with purchases and sales spread the risks of moving a large quantity of gold.
Laurent Schwartz of the Paris-based National Gold Counter described London as the deepest and most liquid gold market, where central banks can more easily lend gold to other banking institutions. John Plassard of Cite Gestion Private Bank said the change was intended to make the reserves more immediately available in a crisis.
Other central banks have not followed the same path
Plassard described the Dutch move as fairly one-off and said a broader shift by central banks could damage confidence in the United States. Concerns were raised in Germany earlier in the year about the security of its gold reserves in New York, but the Bundesbank said the New York Fed remained an important storage site and decided not to move its reserves for the moment.
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