Central banks pull gold from London, New York vaults

Central Banks Repatriate Gold From London and New York Vaults

Central banks around the world are pulling their gold reserves out of traditional storage hubs in London and New York at an accelerating pace, driven by geopolitical tensions and fears that access to sovereign assets could be restricted in an extreme sanctions scenario.

The shift was laid bare in the World Gold Council’s 2026 Central Bank Gold Reserves Survey, released Tuesday, which found the share of central banks using the Bank of England’s vaults dropped from 64% to 57% over the past year, while those storing gold at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York fell from 17% to 14%. Meanwhile, 19% of respondents said they had increased domestic gold storage, compared with just 7% the year before.bitget

Geopolitical Anxiety Fuels the Trend

Shaokai Fan, global head of central banks at the World Gold Council, told the Financial Times that “geopolitical concerns” and “fears about maintaining full access” to reserves in extreme scenarios are the primary drivers behind the repatriation wave. The freezing of Russian central bank assets following Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine reshaped how reserve managers think about custody risk.economictimes

The same survey found a record 45% of reserve managers plan to increase gold holdings within the next year, up two percentage points from a year earlier, according to Reuters.reuters

France and India Lead the Charge

France completed its withdrawal from the New York Fed between July 2025 and January 2026, selling 129 tonnes of older bars across 26 transactions and replacing them with higher-standard European bullion now stored entirely at the Banque de France’s underground vault in Paris. The operation netted a capital gain of roughly €13 billion.firstpost

India’s Reserve Bank has moved even more aggressively. By the end of March 2026, about 77% of India’s 880 tonnes of gold reserves were held domestically, up from roughly 45% three years earlier. In just six months between October 2025 and March 2026, the RBI brought back more than 104 tonnes.multibagg

New Hubs Emerge in Asia

Singapore and Hong Kong are positioning themselves as alternative vaulting destinations. On Monday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced it will introduce gold-vaulting services for central banks by October, while Singapore Exchange signed a memorandum of understanding with six banks to establish an over-the-counter gold clearing system by the end of the year.businesstimes

The repatriation trend accompanies sustained central bank buying — net purchases reached 244 tonnes in the first quarter of 2026 alone — and reflects what Barry Eichengreen of UC Berkeley has called “a symptom of deglobalization”.gold