Territorial claims on Greenland made by the Trump administration have led Europeans to question whether their central banks' gold reserves stored at the Fed in New York are still safe. The central banks themselves apparently do not share these concerns. The Fed's popularity has not changed over the course of the year: New York remains the fourth most popular storage location for foreign gold reserves. Nevertheless, something has changed in decisions about repatriating and relocating gold since the turn of the millennium.
Strategic relocation replaces repatriation
In 2000, the Deutsche Bundesbank led the way, transferring 930 tons of gold from London to Germany. Shortly after it repatriated a further 674 tons from New York and Paris in the 2010s, the Dutch central bank followed suit and moved 130 tons from New York to Amsterdam. Numerous other central banks acted similarly in the following years. Recently, the Dutch central bank again withdrew gold reserves from New York and Ottawa, this time relocating them to London. This has nothing to do with repatriation anymore. Rather, it is a strategic decision to improve the tradability of gold reserves in times of crisis.
London: Bank of England remains number one
Owing to its importance as a trading hub, London is by far the most popular storage location for central bank gold reserves, well ahead of domestic storage. The "2026 Central Bank Gold Reserves Survey" by the World Gold Council, the gold industry's trade association, shows that three factors play a decisive role in central banks' storage strategies worldwide today: custody risk, physical access and market liquidity. This reflects heightened geopolitical uncertainty.