The Dutch central bank announced that it has moved billions of pounds worth of its gold reserves out to London in a move it described as “crisis preparedness” in a time of global political unrest. It said that between March and August, some 86 tonnes of gold were transferred to London from the combined total of around 313 tonnes held in New York and Ottawa, Canada.
Before the move, New York housed 31.3% of the Dutch gold, and Ottawa held 19.7%. After the move, both cities now hold 18.5%, the bank said. The bank owns 612 tonnes of gold that were worth 72.2 billion euros (about £62.1 billion) at the end of 2025. The bank’s governor, Olaf Sleijpen, said in a written statement: “With this relocation, we have improved the tradability of our gold reserves. We expect that we will never need to use them, but we do need to strengthen our resilience and preparedness.”
More than 27 tonnes of gold were “physically transferred” from the United States and Canada to the Dutch bank’s heavily guarded vault on a military base near the central town of Zeist, the bank said, without elaborating on exactly how the gold bars got across the Atlantic Ocean.
A similar quantity of gold was transferred from Zeist to London.
The rest of the relocation was achieved by selling around 59 metric tons (65 tons) of gold in New York and using the proceeds to buy gold in London.
A statement from the Dutch bank, known by its acronym DNB, continued by saying that gold held at the Bank of England “must meet modern international trade standards”, adding that it “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 gold reserves held in New York and Ottawa cannot be utilised as quickly and directly in such a situation.”
