The Netherlands has repatriated about 130 tonnes of their gold reserves, according to a press release published by the central bank. The gold was repatriated from the vaults of the Federal Reserve in New York back to the vault of ‘De Nederlandsche Bank’ in Amsterdam. This operation took several months and was done in complete secrecy. The Netherlands has a total gold reserve of about 612 metric tonnes, of which just 10% was located in Amsterdam. The majority of the Dutch gold reserves were held abroad for years: 50% in New York, 20% in Ottawa and 20% in London. Once the public got aware of this gold location policy, they put the central bank under pressure to bring back at least some of the gold held outside the Netherlands.
The 130 tonnes of gold transported from New York to Amsterdam represent about 20% of the Dutch gold stock and has a current market value of almost €3,7 billion ($4,6 bln). From now on, about 30% of the Dutch gold will be stored in the Netherlands. A similar percentage stays in the US, while gold reserves held in Canada and the UK remain unchanged as well.
The full press release on this secret gold repatriation by the Dutch central bank:
DNB adjusts its gold stock location policy
De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) has adjusted its gold stock location policy and has shipped gold from the United States to the Netherlands to spread its gold stock in a more balanced way.
Under the previous policy, 11% of the gold stock was located in the Netherlands, 51% in the United States, with the remainder held in Canada (20%) and the United Kingdom (18%). Under the new policy, the breakdown by location is as follows: 31% in Amsterdam, 31% in New York, with the relative holdings in Ottawa and London remaining unchanged at 20% and 18%, respectively. Following this adjustment, DNB is in line with other central banks holding a greater part of their gold stock in their own countries. Beyond realising a more balanced distribution of the gold stock across the different locations, this may also have a positive effect on public confidence.
Changing the distribution of the gold holdings across the different locations is not without precedent. From the end of the Second World War until the early 1970s, for example, DNB increased its gold reserves following the Bretton Woods Accord, mainly in New York. Since then, there have been other movements in DNB’s gold stock. The main reasons for this being the gold sales in the past few decades and the closure of the vaults of the Reserve Bank of Australia, as a result of which DNB shipped gold from Australia to the United Kingdom in 2000.
Dutch central bank repatriates 130 tonnes of gold from the US
