Netherlands Moves Gold From New York to London, Citing Geopolitical Unrest

By Joe Stonor

The Dutch central bank said it moved around 86 metric tons of gold from New York and Ottawa to London as a result of "increasing geopolitical unrest."

The relocation from North America to the vaults of the Bank of England was part of its crisis preparedness, De Nederlandsche Bank said.

Bullion held by the U.K.'s central bank is "the world's most easily tradable gold and will therefore be the most readily available for DNB in a crisis situation," the Dutch central bank said. Gold reserves in New York and Ottawa couldn't be mobilized as quickly, the bank added.

The bank didn't specify what it meant by "geopolitical unrest". However, the move comes after a year in which relations between the U.S. and its European partners have frayed.

President Trump has voiced frustration over the scale of European countries' defense spending, while the president's threats to seize Greenland from Denmark caused alarm across the continent. Moreover, the U.S. has ramped up tariffs on Canadian goods, resulting in retaliatory measures. Neither side has finalized a new trade agreement after talks broke down in August.

Though the DNB doesn't expect to be in a position to trade the gold reserves, the bank needed "to strengthen our resilience and preparedness," said Governor Olaf Sleijpen.

The bank's reserves are spread across the Dutch town Zeist as well as central banks in the U.K., Canada and the U.S. As a result of the relocation, 32.1% of the bank's gold reserves are now held in London, up from 18.1% previously.

New York, which had held 31.3% of the bank's reserves, now holds 18.5%--the same proportion that is held in Ottawa. The total Dutch gold stock amounted to 612.4 tons at the end of 2025, and was worth 72.2 billion euros ($83.67 billion).

The relocation, which took place between March and August this year, was achieved both by physically moving gold bars, and by selling gold in New York to buy an equivalent amount in London, the bank said.

More than 27 tons of gold were physically transferred from the U.S. and Canada to Zeist, the bank said, before a similar quantity of international standard gold was then moved to London from Zeist.

Write to Joe Stonor at josephmichael.stonor@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 03, 2026 07:39 ET (11:39 GMT)