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Akbar Novruz

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The Netherlands has moved 86 tonnes of its gold reserves from the United States and Canada to London, citing increasing geopolitical unrest and the need to ensure its holdings can be deployed more quickly in a crisis.

De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the Dutch central bank, said on Wednesday that gold stored in London could be traded more easily than reserves held in New York and Ottawa, making it the quickest location from which to mobilize the metal if necessary.

“This makes it the quickest for DNB to deploy in a crisis situation,” the central bank said.

DNB President Olaf Sleijpen said the transfer had strengthened the bank’s preparedness and resilience.

“We assume that we will never need to deploy the gold, but it is nevertheless necessary to strengthen our resilience and preparedness,” Sleijpen said.

The Netherlands held a total of 612.4 tonnes of gold worth €72.2 billion ($83.7 billion) at the end of 2025, according to DNB.

Before the operation, 31.3% of the country’s gold reserves were held in New York and 19.7% in Ottawa. Following the transfer, the share held in each location fell to 18.5%, while London’s share increased from 18.1% to 32.1%. The Netherlands continues to hold 30.8% of its reserves domestically.

The operation, which took place between March and August, combined gold purchases and sales with physical transfers. DNB said more than 27 tonnes of physical gold were moved from the US and Canada to its facility in Zeist, while an equivalent quantity was transferred from Zeist to London.

The arrangement allowed the bank to avoid melting down and recasting existing gold bars while reducing the risks associated with physically transporting a larger quantity of gold.

The move comes amid growing attention among central banks to the location and accessibility of their gold reserves as geopolitical tensions rise.

Laurent Schwartz, president of the Paris-based National Gold Council, said central banks had been repositioning their reserves for roughly a decade, adding that the current political environment in the United States could encourage some institutions to favor alternative storage locations.

London, he said, remains the world’s deepest and most liquid gold market, allowing central banks to deploy their holdings more easily during a crisis and lend gold to other financial institutions.

John Plassard, an analyst at Cite Gestion Private Bank, similarly described the Dutch transfer as a measure aimed at ensuring more immediate access to gold during a crisis.

He said the move was currently a relatively isolated case but warned that broader moves by other central banks could eventually affect confidence in the US as a major gold-storage location.