Dutch central bank reallocates 86 tonnes of gold to London and lifts the city’s share of its reserves from 18 to 32 percent
De Nederlandsche Bank said on 2 September 2026 that it had relocated approximately 86 tonnes of gold from New York and Ottawa to London between March and August, citing what it called increasing geopolitical unrest. The total holding did not change. What changed is where it sits, and the published vault table shows a larger reallocation than the tonnage alone suggests.
London’s share of Dutch gold rose from 18.1 percent to 32.1 percent. New York fell from 31.3 percent to 18.5 percent and Ottawa from 19.7 percent to 18.5 percent. The share held at Zeist in the Netherlands was unchanged at 30.8 percent, though metal moved through it in both directions.
Those percentages carry more information than the headline. The North American holding, which the bank puts at approximately 313 tonnes and which the published percentages imply at 312.3 on our calculation, was 51.0 percent of the total before the move and falls to 37.0 percent, both also ours from the published rows. The 14.0 percentage points that left North America are exactly the 14.0 points London gained, and applied to a 612.4 tonne stock that is 85.7 tonnes, on our calculation, which reconciles with the stated 86 tonnes. The split within North America is where the published table adds something: New York gave up 12.8 points and Ottawa 1.2. In tonnes that is roughly 78 out of New York and 7 out of Ottawa, on our calculation. This was overwhelmingly a withdrawal from the United States, not from Canada.
Most of the gold never crossed the Atlantic
The mechanics disclosed alongside the announcement are the most interesting part of it, and they are not what the word transfer implies.
About 59 tonnes were sold in New York and gold meeting international market standards was bought in London. Separately, more than 27 tonnes were physically shipped from the United States and Canada to Zeist, and a similar quantity of gold meeting those standards was sent from Zeist to London, which avoided remelting.
So of the 86 tonnes, roughly 59 moved as a transaction and roughly 27 moved as metal, on our calculation: 68.6 percent of the relocation was executed through market transactions rather than by physically transporting the corresponding gold. Two thirds of the reallocation was achieved by selling bars in one jurisdiction and buying different bars in another.
The bank’s stated reason for splitting the operation between the two methods is risk and cost rather than either one being preferred: combining purchase and sale with physical transport “allowed DNB to spread the risks associated with such a complex physical gold relocation operation, while also ensuring efficiency and cost-consciousness.”
Its reason for choosing London as the destination is separate and is about tradability. Gold held at the Bank of England must meet modern international trade standards and is described as the world’s most easily tradable, while the holdings in New York and Ottawa “cannot be utilised as quickly and directly” in a crisis. The gold bought in London meets those standards, and so did the gold sent on from Zeist, which is what removed the need to remelt.
Governor Olaf Sleijpen framed the exercise in terms of readiness rather than expectation: “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.”
The stock is 612.4 tonnes and the book value on it is eight months old
The Dutch central bank puts its gold at 612.4 tonnes, worth 72.2 billion euros at year end 2025. It publishes no price basis for that valuation and no dollar figure, and it published no value for the 86 tonnes moved.
Bloomberg valued the transferred tranche at about 12 billion dollars. That implies roughly 139.5 million dollars a tonne, or about 4,340 dollars a troy ounce on our calculation. Applied across the full 612.4 tonne holding, the same implied price gives a stock worth about 85 billion dollars, on our calculation, against a book value struck at the end of last year. Neither institution published the price behind either figure, so the 85 billion is an implication of the wire’s valuation rather than a mark either of them has made.
This is also not the first time the vaults have moved. Overnight on 2 and 3 October 2020 more than 200 tonnes of bars, together with a strategic banknote stock, were moved from Amsterdam to a temporary vault at Haarlem, a transport valued at 14.5 billion euros of which roughly 10 billion was gold. That holding moved again over four weeks to the purpose built cash centre at Zeist, completed on 15 May 2023, this time more than 200 tonnes of bars and coins worth 10.4 billion euros. Both of those were domestic reorganisations. The 2026 operation changes where Dutch gold sits internationally, which is a different exercise.
| Vault | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Zeist | 30.8% | 30.8% |
| London | 18.1% | 32.1% |
| New York | 31.3% | 18.5% |
| Ottawa | 19.7% | 18.5% |
Distribution of Dutch official gold reserves before and after the March to August 2026 relocation, as published by the central bank. The bank publishes percentages only, not tonnes. Each column sums to 99.9 percent as published, which is a rounding artefact.
| Vault | Before, tonnes | After, tonnes |
|---|---|---|
| Zeist | 188.6 | 188.6 |
| London | 110.8 | 196.6 |
| New York | 191.7 | 113.3 |
| Ottawa | 120.6 | 113.3 |
Tonnage implied by applying the published percentages to the stated holding of 612.4 tonnes. These conversions are ours; the central bank does not publish a tonnage breakdown by vault. The implied movement is 78.4 tonnes out of New York and 7.3 out of Ottawa, summing to 85.7 against the 86 tonnes stated. London’s rounded gain reads 85.8 because each of its two figures rounds up.
| How the 86 tonnes moved | Tonnes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Sold in New York, bought in London | about 59 | 68.6% |
| Shipped to Zeist, standard bars sent on to London | more than 27 | 31.4% |
Method of relocation as disclosed by the central bank. The shares are ours, and the physical share is a floor because the disclosure says more than 27 tonnes. The second line covers two separate movements, North America to Zeist and Zeist to London, of which only the first crossed the Atlantic and the second involved different bars. The first line moved no metal at all.
Sources: De Nederlandsche Bank, Bloomberg.
