Why European nations pulling gold from US Federal Reserve?

The Dutch Central Bank has relocated 86 tonnes of gold out of the United States (US) and Canada to London, signaling a shift in how European nations protect their most valuable reserves amid escalating global instability. 
This major transfer reflects a broader trend among European nations reconsidering North American storage to bolster immediate crisis liquidity, reduce transatlantic political risk, and ensure rapid asset deployment. 
“A more balanced distribution of these reserves between North America, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands helps to spread risks and will make them more readily available for use in a crisis situation,” De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) said in a statement.
The gold held in the Bank of England in London “must meet modern international trade standards and is regarded as the world’s most easily tradable gold and will therefore be the most readily available for DNB in a crisis situation,” the Dutch bank said. The total Dutch gold stock amounted to 612.4 tonnes and was valued at €72.2bn ($83.7bn) at the end of 2025, said the DNB. 
Before the move, the Dutch bank held 31.3% of its gold in New York and 19.7% in Ottawa. Now both hold 18.5% of the country’s gold reserve, while London’s share has grown from 18.1% to 32.1%. Another 30.8% of DNB’s gold is in the Netherlands.

The move comes amid growing tensions between Washington and its European allies over trade disputes, Donald Trump’s unpredictable approach to foreign alliances, and sharp disagreements surrounding the Iran war.
The transfer was carried out partially by buying and selling and partly by physically transferring gold, the bank said.
The bank moved more than 27 tonnes of physical gold from the US and Canada to Zeist.
The same quantity of gold was moved from Zeist to London, preventing the melting down of gold bars.
“By combining buying and selling and physical transport, the risks associated with physically moving a large quantity of gold have been spread,” the DNB said.
The operation took place between March and August of this year, it said.
Laurent Schwartz, president of the Paris-based National Gold Counter, which facilitates gold trading in France, said central banks had been moving their reserves around for about a decade.
“The current political context in the United States might also push certain central banks into favouring other storage locations,” he said.
The London market was the deepest and most liquid, Schwartz said, making it easier to deploy in times of crisis. “Central banks can more easily lend their gold there to other banking institutions.”
John Plassard, an analyst at Cite Gestion Private Bank, said the Dutch move was intended “for there to be more immediate availability in the event of a crisis”.
At the beginning of the year, there were concerns raised in Germany about the security of its central bank’s reserves in New York, The Guardian reported.
The Dutch move follows France’s similar move in January.
The Banque de France sold 129 tonnes of gold which had been held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York between July 2025 and January 2026, about 5% of its total reserves.
With the money it made from the sale, the bank purchased an equivalent amount of new, compliant gold in Europe, which now sits in Paris alongside the rest of France’s reserves, which totals around 2,437 tonnes.
In the summer of 2017, under the first Trump administration, Germany’s Bundesbank completed the transfer of 300 tonnes of its gold from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to Frankfurt.
The move was part of the German bank’s plan to have the majority of the country’s gold reserves stored in German vaults in Frankfurt. While 36.6% of its gold stock remained in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, all the 374 tonnes of gold in France’s Banque de France were pulled out.
The two countries hold the world’s second- and third-largest gold reserves at 3,352 tonnes and 2,452 tonnes, respectively. Italy holds roughly one-third in New York. The single largest holder is the United States, which holds 8,133 tonnes of gold.
While the Netherlands relocates its reserves, major nations including Italy (43%), Lebanon (40%), Germany (36.6%), and India continue to hold substantial portions of their gold in the US Federal Reserve, according to Newsweek.