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The Bank of France (BdF) said it had withdrawn the remaining gold held in New York and replaced it with a similar amount of gold bullion held in its vaults in Paris.
Gold amounted to 129 tons, or about 5% of the bank’s total holdings, according to the bank’s press release. Released last week.
France, one of the world’s largest gold holders, has stored some of its bullion at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since the late 1920s.
However, the process of repatriating its gold holdings began in the 1960s, leading the United States to end the Bretton Woods system, which effectively prevented foreign governments from exchanging dollars for gold.
Despite this, France still holds a small portion of its gold with the Reserve Bank of New York.
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For the past 20 years, the BDF has also been replacing its “old” or “non-standard” gold holdings – such as those in New York – with bullion that meets modern international standards.
Under the internal audit’s 2024 recommendation, the bank went ahead with redeeming gold held by the United States between July 2025 and January 2026. But instead of refining and transporting the gold, it chose to sell bullion and buy new bullion in Europe.
BdF Governor François Villeroy de Galhau said the decision to keep the new bullion in Paris was “not politically motivated,” as the high-quality gold bullion purchased by the company was traded on the European market.
Due to the rise in gold prices, this move helped the bank achieve capital gains of 13 billion euros ($15 billion), reaching a net profit of 8.1 billion euros for the fiscal year 2025 after a net loss of 7.7 billion euros in 2024.
The total volume of France’s gold reserves remains unchanged at around 2,437 tonnes, which are now held entirely in the BdF underground vault at La Souterraine.
The French central bank still has 134 tons of gold to reach the record level, which it aims to do by 2028.
