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The Dutch Central Bank has shifted gold reserves worth about US$12 billion from New York and Ottawa to London, citing concerns about increasing global geopolitical unrest.

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Between March and August, the bank transferred approximately 86 metric tons of gold — more than a quarter of the bullion it holds in the United States and Canada — to the United Kingdom capital. London now holds nearly a third of Dutch gold reserves, the largest share.

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“With this relocation, we have improved the tradability of our gold reserves,” Dutch central bank governor Olaf Sleijpen said in a statement Wednesday. “We expect that we will never need to use them, but we do need to strengthen our resilience and preparedness.”

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London hosts the world’s most liquid gold market, where hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of metal changes hands every week. For this reason, central banks have long used the Bank of England as a custodian for their metal, where it can be quickly sold or bought in large quantities, or lent out to raise dollars.

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Gold stored at the Bank of England must also meet international market standards for weight and purity, making bars held there readily interchangeable and easier to trade.

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Bullion held at the Bank of England “is considered the most easily tradable gold in the world,” the Dutch central bank said. “This makes it the quickest for DNB to deploy in a crisis situation.”

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Central banks have long spread their gold across several countries, balancing the security of domestic storage against the ability to trade or mobilize reserves quickly in major financial centres.

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But geopolitical tensions are prompting more reserve managers to reconsider where their bullion is kept. A growing share are looking to diversify or repatriate their holdings, according to a recent central bank survey.

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The Dutch move comes just months after the French central bank sold its bullion reserves held in the U.S. and replaced them with reserves in Paris, an operation it said was intended to bring its gold bars into line with international standards.

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Germany, which holds the world’s second-largest gold reserves, has long faced calls to repatriate bullion held in New York. The opposition AfD this year tabled a motion in the Bundestag seeking the return of all German gold held abroad, arguing that the Trump administration could use its control over assets stored in the U.S. as a source of leverage over Germany.

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“Keeping a larger share of the gold reserves in London strengthens the function of gold as an anchor of trust,” the Dutch central bank said.

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The bank holds 30.8 per cent of its 612.4 tons of gold reserves at its cash centre in Zeist, southeast of Amsterdam.