AMSTERDAM — The Netherlands’ central bank has shifted 86 tonnes of its gold reserves away from storage locations in the United States and Canada and increased its holdings in London, citing growing geopolitical uncertainty and the need to have gold more readily available during a potential crisis.
De Nederlandsche Bank, the Dutch central bank, said the restructuring was designed to improve the flexibility and accessibility of one of the country’s most important financial reserves.
London was chosen because it is one of the world’s largest and most liquid gold markets, allowing the central bank to trade, lend or otherwise deploy its holdings more quickly if circumstances ever require it.
DNB President Olaf Sleijpen said the bank does not expect that it will actually need to use the gold in an emergency, but believes strengthening preparedness and financial resilience is nevertheless important.
The Netherlands held 612.4 tonnes of gold worth approximately 72.2 billion euros at the end of 2025, making the relocation a significant reshuffling rather than a withdrawal of all Dutch reserves from North America.
Before the operation, 31.3 per cent of the Netherlands’ gold was stored in New York and 19.7 per cent in Ottawa.
Following the transfer, the proportion held in each of those locations has fallen to 18.5 per cent.
London’s share has risen substantially, from 18.1 per cent to 32.1 per cent, making the British capital the largest foreign storage location for Dutch gold.
Another 30.8 per cent remains stored within the Netherlands.
The operation, carried out between March and August, involved a combination of physical transfers and gold-market transactions rather than simply transporting the entire 86 tonnes from North America to Britain.
More than 27 tonnes of physical gold was transported from the United States and Canada to Zeist in the Netherlands. An equivalent amount was then moved from Zeist to London.
According to the central bank, this approach avoided unnecessarily melting and recasting gold bars while reducing some of the risks associated with physically transporting an extremely large quantity of the precious metal in a single operation.
The decision also comes amid wider discussion among central banks about where national gold reserves should be stored in an increasingly uncertain geopolitical environment.
Gold has traditionally played a special role in central-bank reserves because it is not dependent on the creditworthiness of another government or financial institution. During periods of severe financial or geopolitical instability, it can therefore serve as an important reserve asset.
Laurent Schwartz, president of France’s National Gold Counter, said central banks have been repositioning portions of their gold reserves for roughly a decade.
He said the current political environment in the United States could also encourage some central banks to consider alternative storage locations.
London offers an important advantage because of the enormous size and liquidity of its gold market. Central banks can trade their holdings there relatively easily or lend gold to other financial institutions if necessary.
John Plassard, an analyst at Cite Gestion Private Bank, similarly described the Dutch decision as an effort to ensure more immediate access to reserves during a crisis.
For now, analysts view the Dutch move as relatively isolated rather than evidence of a large-scale withdrawal of foreign central-bank gold from the United States.
However, the symbolism could become more significant if other countries begin making similar decisions.
A broader movement of national gold reserves away from New York could potentially raise questions about confidence in the United States as one of the world’s principal custodians of sovereign gold.
Germany, which holds one of the world’s largest national gold reserves, has also faced domestic debate about whether some of its holdings should continue to remain in New York.
So far, however, Germany’s Bundesbank has rejected calls for a major relocation and has reaffirmed the importance of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as a storage location for German gold.
The Netherlands is also not abandoning North America. More than a third of its total gold reserves will continue to be divided between the United States and Canada after the restructuring.
The significance of the decision therefore lies less in removing Dutch gold from North America altogether and more in changing where the Netherlands believes its reserves can be most effectively accessed during periods of international instability.
With geopolitical tensions increasing and governments placing greater emphasis on economic and financial security, the Dutch central bank is positioning a larger share of its gold where it believes it can be mobilized most quickly.
The 86-tonne shift sends a broader message as well: in an increasingly uncertain world, central banks are paying closer attention not only to how much gold they own, but also to exactly where that gold is kept.