The Netherlands has announced the repatriation of some of its gold bullion reserves stored in the US, after Germany expressed similar intentions in 2012.
According to the Dutch central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the nation wishes to diversify its spread of gold stock “in a more balanced way”.
Previously, the country kept 11 per cent of its reserves domestically, while more than half was held in the US. A further 20 and 18 per cent were stored in Canada and the UK respectively.
However, DNB has moved a substantial proportion of Dutch gold from a gold bullion vault in New York back to Amsterdam. The country now stores 31 per cent of entire stockpile of the yellow metal domestically. The central bank confirmed holdings in Ottawa and London have stayed the same.
“Following this adjustment, DNB is in line with other central banks holding a greater part of their gold stock in their own countries,” the institution explained on Friday (November 21).
“Beyond realising a more balanced distribution of the gold stock across the different locations, this may also have a positive effect on public confidence.”
Gold movement ‘not without precedent’
Germany unveiled similar plans to repatriate its US-held gold in 2012, but later abandoned the efforts after only recouping a small quantity of its reserves.
However, DNB defended its repatriation, claiming that transporting gold has occurred in the past due to a number of reasons.
Firstly, the Bretton Woods Accord led to the Dutch moving gold reserves to New York between the end of World War II and the early 1970s.
The country also shifted the precious metal from Australia when the country’s Reserve Bank closed down its bullion storage vaults.
This resulted in the Netherlands transporting its gold from Australia to the United Kingdom in 2000.