Fort Knox, the fortified advanced within the state of Kentucky the place about half of the US authorities’s gold reserves are held, is a byword for safety.

To be “like Fort Knox” means to be extraordinarily safe and well-guarded. But the notion of the USA as a complete as a safe location to retailer gold is clearly on the wane.

The choice by the Dutch central financial institution lately to maneuver about 86 tonnes (95 US tons) of gold from New York to London highlighted rising issues amongst some governments over storing strategic property within the US and whether or not they might be readily accessed in a disaster.

The De Nederlandsche Financial institution (DNB) cited “geopolitical unrest” and mentioned shifting its gold throughout completely different jurisdictions would enhance its “disaster preparedness.”

France additionally eliminated its remaining gold publicity from the New York Federal Reserve between July 2025 and January 2026, though Financial institution of France Governor François Villeroy de Galhau mentioned on the time that it was not politically motivated.

A number of politicians in Germany and Italy — which maintain the world’s second- and third-largest gold reserves, respectively — have known as for his or her nations’ gold to be additionally taken out of the US amid issues concerning the Trump administration’s unpredictable policymaking and its rising antipathy towards the European Union, together with threats to annex a part of Greenland.

The gold rush

Sebastien Tillett, an analyst with Oxford Economics, instructed DW the outright seizure of property is an “extraordinarily distant danger” for European central banks. Nevertheless, he mentioned, there are rising issues about ease of entry in an age of geopolitical uncertainty.

“The extra related concern is that property held in one other jurisdiction might develop into briefly inaccessible in an excessive sanctions, authorized or geopolitical situation,” he mentioned.

Typically, mentioned Krishnan Gopaul, of the World Gold Council, central banks world wide have been shopping for extra gold because the 2008 world monetary disaster and are more and more centered on the place and the way they retailer it. Because of this, gold costs have soared to report highs.

A latest survey by the World Gold Council discovered that central banks have amassed a median of 1,000 tonnes of gold over the previous 4 years, up from the 500-tonne common over the previous decade.

As a result of the 2008 world monetary disaster was adopted by the euro sovereign-debt disaster after which quite a lot of political crises, a pandemic, and sustained geopolitical upheaval and battle, gold has come into sharper focus as a protected haven asset, Gopaul mentioned.

“As we have gone by the final 20 years, there have been questions and issues across the world monetary system and the state of geopolitics in a single kind or one other,” he mentioned.

The choices by the Dutch and French to maneuver their gold out of the USA and again to Europe spotlight the brand new concentrate on the place precisely the gold is held in order that it may be simply and shortly leveraged within the occasion of a brand new disaster.

Central banks, governments and sovereign wealth funds maintain bodily gold in numerous places. Shifting it may be extraordinarily advanced, dangerous and dear, whereas the convenience of promoting it or buying and selling it for currencies or different property relies on the placement.

“Central banks are paying higher consideration to the place reserves are held in addition to what property they maintain, primarily to maximise resilience and suppleness of reserve holdings,” Tillett mentioned.

Gopaul mentioned reserve administration had develop into “extremely essential” and that, whereas it may appear apparent to concentrate on the doable unfavourable dangers related to a sure jurisdiction such because the US, a part of the rationale behind such selections is ensuring that the gold is as near dwelling as doable and in a buying and selling hub that strikes quick.

He highlights the truth that the Dutch central financial institution moved its gold to London somewhat than to the Netherlands as a result of the UK is “some of the liquid buying and selling hubs within the gold market.”

“The thought is that within the occasion of a disaster, in stress intervals, that gold might be doubtlessly mobilized,” he mentioned. “London is just about the guts of the gold market, and there may be a lot exercise there, and it is such a liquid market, that in a time of disaster that’s the place you need your gold.”

The Financial institution of England is a serious world gold holder and custodian. There are estimated to be round 400,000 gold bars in its possession, price round $270 billion (€232 billion).

The US query

Whereas shifting gold to a location corresponding to London has an attraction of its personal for European entities, it’s clear that doubts over US reliability within the Trump period and over the US monetary system as a complete is driving decision-making.

Final week, the supervisor of Norway’s huge $2.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund mentioned the fund must considerably reduce its publicity to US treasuries.

That call appears to be pushed by concern about US authorities bond markets, with hovering inflation and authorities debt driving up borrowing prices and spooking buyers.

Tillett mentioned gold remained delicate to selections by the US Federal Reserve and basic concern about US monetary markets meant that gold holders wish to transfer their property.

In addition to these particular monetary market issues, Trump’s rhetoric about Greenland and continued veiled threats towards the EU has added to the explanations for European establishments to wish to transfer their property round.

But the USA, and the New York Federal Reserve in Manhattan, particularly, stays a key custodian of a lot European gold, not least from Germany. Though the Bundesbank moved about 300 tonnes of gold again to Germany from the US between 2013 and 2017, it nonetheless holds effectively over 1,000 tonnes in the USA.

Final 12 months in a press release it mentioned: “Now we have little doubt that the New York Fed is a reliable and dependable companion for the safekeeping of our gold reserves.”

Edited by: Kristie Pladson