[Reuters]
[Reuters]

The Dutch central bank has moved 86 tons of gold stored in New York and Ottawa to London.

De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) said in a statement Wednesday (local time) that it transferred 86 tons of gold from North America to the Bank of England's vaults between March and August this year, according to Dutch outlet NL Times and European broadcaster Euronews. The amount represents more than a quarter of the 313 tons previously split between the two locations.

"Given growing geopolitical instability, we are working to strengthen our crisis-response capacity," DNB said in the statement. "Improving the marketability of Dutch gold — in other words, how quickly it can be deployed in a crisis — is part of that effort." The bank added that the move would allow the gold to be deployed most rapidly in an emergency.

DNB Governor Olaf Sleijpen said the transfer had improved the usability of the gold reserves. "I don't expect we will ever actually need to use the gold, but strengthening our resilience and preparedness is still the right thing to do," he said.

Not all 86 tons crossed the Atlantic. About 27 tons were physically transported — from New York and Ottawa to DNB's vault in Zeist, Utrecht province.

The remaining 59 tons were handled through a paper transaction: gold was sold in New York and an equivalent amount purchased in London, eliminating the need to melt down or fly the bullion across the ocean.

After the transfer, the share of Dutch gold held in New York fell from 31.3 percent to 18.5 percent, while the Ottawa share declined from 19.7 percent to 18.5 percent. London's share rose to 32.1 percent, making it the largest single storage location for Dutch gold.

DNB said the Netherlands held a total of 612.4 tons of gold as of the end of last year, valued at 72.2 billion euros ($83.7 billion). The Netherlands previously repatriated 122.5 tons of gold from New York to Amsterdam in 2014.

The Netherlands is not the only central bank pulling gold from American vaults. The Banque de France wound down its holdings at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York through 26 transactions between July last year and January this year, moving out 129 tons. France's entire 2,437-ton gold reserve is now stored domestically.

A World Gold Council survey found that 19 percent of central banks had increased domestic gold storage or diversified their storage locations over the past year — a sharp jump from 7 percent in the previous year's survey.


dbsdn1110@heraldcorp.com