For decades, central banks were perfectly happy leaving their gold bars in vaults beneath Lower Manhattan. That era appears to be ending.
A growing number of the world’s monetary authorities are physically moving gold reserves back to domestic storage, driven by geopolitical tension, economic uncertainty, and a quiet but unmistakable erosion of trust in the post-war financial architecture.
The great gold migration
The World Gold Council’s 2026 Central Bank Gold Reserves Survey, drawing responses from 76 central banks, paints a clear picture. Some 59% of surveyed central banks now store at least part of their gold domestically. That’s up from 41% just two years earlier.
France made one of the most notable moves. Between July 2025 and January 2026, the Banque de France executed 26 separate transactions to bring 129 tonnes of gold, valued at roughly $15 billion, from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York back to Paris.
