Gold reserve shifted from New York to Amsterdam

De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) has adjusted its location policy for the gold reserve. The DNB announced today that it shifted some of the gold from the United States to the Netherlands in order to achieve a more balanced distribution over different locations.

In the old location policy 11 percent of the gold reserves were located in the Netherlands, 51 percent in the United States, 20 percent in Canada and 18 percent in the United Kingdom. According to the new policy, the location distribution is 31 percent in Amsterdam, 31 percent in New York, while the percentages in Ottawa and London remain unchanged at 20 and 18 percent.

With this adjustment DNB joins other central banks that store a large share of their gold reserves in their own country. "In addition to a more balanced distribution of the gold reserve over the different locations, this can also contribute to a positive confidence effect in the public." said the central bank.

The distribution of the gold over different locations has often been subject to change. For example, in the period after the World War II up until the seventies DNB added a lot of gold to its reserves, especially in New York. More changes have been made since then.

The main reasons for this are the gold sales in recent decades and the closing of the Reserve Bank of Australia's vaults. The closing of the vaults caused the DNB to ship gold from Australia to the UK in 2000.