Netherlands Gold Reserves: DNB Moves Gold to London
The Netherlands’ gold reserves amount to 612.4 tonnes and are managed by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). At the end of 2025 they were worth €72.2 billion. The gold is spread across four storage sites: Zeist, London, New York and Ottawa.
How much gold does the Netherlands have?
DNB holds 612.4 tonnes of gold as part of the official foreign reserves. DNB regards gold as a store of value and a safety net for emergencies, such as financial crises, severe political instability or war, when other assets could lose value.
In the World Gold Council ranking, the Netherlands is in twelfth place with 612 tonnes, including the IMF. Gold makes up around 74 per cent of Dutch foreign reserves. DNB deliberately spreads its gold across several countries to diversify risk. Besides its own vault in Zeist, it uses the Bank of England in London, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa.
The transfer to London in 2026
On 2 September 2026 DNB announced that between March and August it had moved around 86 tonnes of gold from New York and Ottawa to London. Before that, around 313 tonnes were stored there in total. The aim was to improve the tradability of the gold: gold at the Bank of England meets the current standards of the London market and can be used most quickly in a crisis.
DNB carried out most of the transfer via the market. It sold just under 59 tonnes in New York and bought gold in London that meets international standards. Just over 27 tonnes were physically brought from the United States and Canada to Zeist, and an equal quantity of market-standard bars went from Zeist to London. This meant no bars had to be remelted. The total holdings stayed the same. Since then around 37 per cent of Dutch gold, just over 220 tonnes, remains in North America. According to media reports, the value of the transferred quantity was over €10 billion.
| Storage site | before | after |
|---|---|---|
| Zeist | 30.8% | 30.8% |
| London (Bank of England) | 18.1% | 32.1% |
| New York (Federal Reserve) | 31.3% | 18.5% |
| Ottawa (Royal Canadian Mint) | 19.7% | 18.5% |
The vault in Zeist
Until 2023, the domestically held Dutch gold was stored beneath DNB’s head office in Amsterdam. Because the building is being renovated, it moved to DNB’s new Cash Centre on the Huis ter Heide military site near Zeist. Around 14,000 bars of 12.5 kilograms each and 1,000 boxes of gold coins are stored there, around 200,000 kilograms in total. At the end of 2025 this part was worth €22.4 billion. DNB’s Governing Board decided on the move in 2019, and the Cash Centre began operating in 2023.
Earlier transfers
Back in 2014, DNB brought part of its gold back from New York to Amsterdam. The 2026 transfer is different: this time the goal was not more gold at home, but more gold at the most important trading centre.
The Banque de France took a similar approach: it replaced its old bars in New York with bars of the current standard in Europe. After DNB’s announcement, the Banca d'Italia stated that it had not moved any gold itself.
Political debate
Storage abroad was raised in the Dutch parliament, including with regard to geopolitical risks in the United States. DNB justified the transfer with increasing geopolitical tensions and the aim of being better prepared for crises. A more balanced distribution between North America, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands spreads the risk.
