Central banks are pulling gold out of New York
The Dutch central bank has moved 86 tonnes to London and France has brought its entire official holding home.
Assembled by Claude from 10 sources at 10 outlets · Monday, September 7, 2026, Morning edition, 9:25 PM EDT · no human byline
What happened
The Central Bank of the Netherlands transferred 86 tonnes of gold to London ua.news. Canadian coverage reports the Dutch National Bank moved a portion of its reserves out of both the United States and Canada, shifting billions in gold to the United Kingdom globalnews.ca. Ripple's chief executive described the Dutch central bank's 11 billion dollar gold shuffle as a sign that finance is too slow finance.biggo.com.
France has brought all of its official gold reserves back home, according to expert commentary on the move bastillepost.com. The French transfer was announced earlier this year ua.news.
The scale of it
The Netherlands has closer to 1,300 tons of gold, or about 55 per cent of its total reserves morningstar.com. MarketWatch's tally of central bank gold reserves in tons ranks countries by holding, and notes that the transfers follow a sharp jump in gold prices marketwatch.com.
The flow is not only about where bullion sits but how much of it there is. According to the World Gold Council's 2026 Central Bank Gold Reserve Survey, central banks have purchased an average of about 1,000 tons of gold news.laodong.vn. The same survey tracks the number of central banks that deposit their gold reserves in foreign vaults eu.36kr.com.
Why it is happening
The trigger reserve managers cite is precedent rather than price. The 2022 freezing of Russian central bank assets following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine sent a shockwave through sovereign reserve management cryptobriefing.com.
Nor is this a one-country decision. The Dutch move followed the French repatriation, and both were made by European central banks that had left metal in North American vaults for decades ua.newsglobalnews.cabastillepost.com. What has changed is not the metal but the assessment of where it is safe to leave it.
Romanian coverage of the European moves puts the reasoning plainly: central banks want quicker access to their reserves in a world with wars, trade tensions, inflation and greater geopolitical risks spotmedia.ro. Physical custody in a friendly jurisdiction is the hedge against a scenario in which the vault, rather than the metal, is the problem.
MarketWatch and Morningstar both frame the trend as a question about the United States itself: whether it is losing its safe-haven status as global central banks pull gold out of New York marketwatch.commorningstar.com. For investors that question runs beyond bullion. The same reserve managers deciding where to store gold are the marginal holders of Treasury securities, and both decisions rest on the same judgment about custody risk cryptobriefing.com.
Sources
- globalnews.ca: Dutch National Bank moves gold out of U.S., Canada | Watch News Videos Online (2026-09-07)
- eu.36kr.com: 8:1 Krypton Daily Briefing: Nike Exits S&P 100 Index, Foldable iPhone Starting at 14,999 ... (2026-09-07)
- ua.news: Netherlands Moves 86 Tonnes of Gold to London - UA.NEWS (2026-09-06)
- finance.biggo.com: Raghuram Rajan to Headline Ripple Swell 2026 as Conference Merges With Developer Event (2026-09-06)
- marketwatch.com: Is the U.S. losing its safe-haven status? Why global central banks are pulling gold out of New York. (2026-09-06)
- bastillepost.com: France pulls all gold from US amid mounting geopolitical concerns: expert - 巴士的報 (2026-09-06)
- cryptobriefing.com: Global central banks withdraw gold from New York, questioning US safe-haven status (2026-09-06)
- morningstar.com: Is the U.S. losing its safe-haven status? Why global central banks are pulling gold out of New York. (2026-09-06)
- news.laodong.vn: Gold price closing session 6/9: Unchanged, waiting to consider pressure factors next week (2026-09-06)
- spotmedia.ro: Why are European countries moving their gold out of North America? - spotmedia.ro (2026-09-06)