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Central Banks · Global Custody · Gold Reserves · Repatriation
Central banks globally adopt diverse strategies for gold reserve storage, with a notable trend among European Union nations to repatriate significant portions of their gold from foreign custodians like the US and France, while the US and UK collectively hold over 53% of the world's gold reserves.
The article identifies three groups of countries: those storing all gold domestically (e.g., USA, France, Russia, China), those storing gold abroad due to historical, security, or logistical reasons (e.g., Germany, Italy, India), and those not disclosing storage locations (e.g., Japan, Thailand). A strong repatriation trend is evident in the EU; Germany completed the return of 300 tons from the US and 374 tons from France by 2016, while the Netherlands repatriated 122.5 tons from the USA.
France covertly brought home 221 tons between 2013 and 2016. Austria and Belgium are currently in the process of repatriating their gold.
The US and Great Britain remain the largest custodians, holding 657 US$ Billions and 16 US$ Billions respectively, due to historical security, robust facilities, and their roles as major gold trading centers. Russia and China actively increase and store their gold reserves domestically to diversify assets and mitigate sanction risks.
