France has gradually recovered more than 100 tons of gold it had stored in the United States over the past few months.
Furthermore, the French Central Bank made more than ten billion euros by converting its old bullion held in New York into newer bullion now held in Paris.
France recovers gold reserves from America
The French Monetary Authority confirmed this week that it had completed the withdrawal of 129 metric tons of gold that was previously held by the US Federal Reserve.
Repatriating precious metals from the Fed’s vaults is part of a strategy to improve the quality of France’s gold holdings.
The Bank of France is working to align its reserves with modern international standards, and to replace old bullion with new ones that meet the 99.5% purity standard.
Instead of refining or transporting the original stock, which would have incurred additional costs, the central bank opted for an arbitrage operation, Journal du Coin reported on Wednesday.
It sold the reserves it had across the Atlantic and almost immediately bought gold at a higher level on the European market, the cryptocurrency news outlet explained in an article.
This was done through more than two dozen transactions, carried out between July 2025 and January 2026, the bank revealed the previous day.
The transfer did not change the size of France’s reserves, which currently stand at about 2,437 tons. The 129 tons represent about 5% of the total, as Reuters noted. However, the gold is now in Paris, not New York.
Commenting on the decision, Governor François Villeroy de Galhau ruled out any political motives, highlighting technical and liquidity reasons, noting that higher-grade gold is traded in Europe.
The new bullion is stored in the underground vault of La Souterraine, beneath the headquarters of the Bank of France in the French capital, which houses the world’s fourth-largest bank. Gold reserve.
The Bank of France returns to profitability thanks to gold movement
Central high standard Gold pricesReturning home proved very profitable for Bank of Francewhich recorded capital gains of 12.8 billion euros (about 15 billion dollars).
Thanks to the operation, the Monetary Authority was able to return to a net profit of 8.1 billion euros for the fiscal year 2025, after recording significant losses in the previous year.
While the deal did not change the amount of physical gold held by the regulator, it did improve the asset quality on its balance sheet.
Its management describes this as converting latent capital gains into accounting profit, while working to secure the liquidity of France’s national reserves.
The French Central Bank intends to continue consolidating its reserves, as it still holds about 134 tons of gold in the form of old coins and bullion. The process should be completed by 2028.
News of the completion of the latest operation comes as Villeroy de Galhão prepares to step down in June, after more than a decade at the helm of one of Europe’s most important central banks.
France recovered most of its gold reserves from the vaults of the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, more than 3,300 tons, between 1963 and 1966.
At that time, President Charles de Gaulle feared that the deficit in the US balance of payments would undermine the Bretton Woods system and reduce the value of the US currency against the precious metal.
In January, a senior German member of the European Parliament urge Berlin decided to withdraw its gold from the United States, citing Washington’s “unpredictable” policies under President Trump.
The German Central Bank still holds about 1,236 tons of gold, or 37% of the total holdings of the Federal Republic, at the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York.
