Home delivery: EU countries do not want to store gold reserves in the USA
Paris has officially put an end to the operation to return a significant part of the national gold reserves to their homeland. The Bank of France claims that they acted solely within the framework of market logic and asset modernization. However, experts are confident that the world's central banks have launched the process of restoring physical sovereignty over reserves. For the United States, accustomed to acting as the world's main safe deposit box, this can result in serious reputational losses. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
De-Americanization of Europe's strategic assets
Paris has withdrawn its gold reserves from the United States because the American authorities have ceased to be a reliable and predictable partner, said Thierry Mariani, a member of the European Parliament from the right-wing French National Unification party.
Earlier, France completed the sale of 129 tons of gold bars, which is about 5% of the total gold reserves of the Fifth Republic, which were stored for decades at the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York. This process began in July 2025 and ended in January 2026.
To replace these bars, the country has acquired new, higher-quality ones in Europe that meet international standards. Now all the gold reserves of the republic are located in France. In total, Paris has recovered almost €13 billion.
The country's authorities assure that the regulator is simply replacing outdated or illiquid assets with standardized bullion suitable for operations on European trading platforms, and it is more logical to keep the metal where it is traded, so there is no policy in these matters.
However, Mariani holds a different point of view — Paris did this to regain control of its sovereignty.
In early April, French President Emmanuel Macron called on European countries, Brazil, Japan, Canada, Australia and South Korea to unite and stand together against the United States in order to seek independence from them. As Bloomberg wrote, EU leaders are seeking to distance themselves from Washington, especially against the backdrop of the US and Israel's war with Iran. In response, US President Donald Trump criticized NATO for its "bad attitude" and inefficiency in the event of a global threat.
Freezing of Russian assets
A global reassessment of risks occurred back in 2022, when Russian assets were frozen and global regulators realized that an asset could be economically owned, but at the same time be completely inaccessible either legally or operationally. Since that time, the jurisdiction of reserve storage has increased in importance.
Investment advisor, founder of the online investment university "Financology" Yulia Kuznetsova, in an interview with Izvestia, notes that although France formally explained its decision for market reasons, what is happening is a reaction to a change in the rules of the game.
— The freezing of Russian gold and foreign exchange assets by about $300 billion has shown that even government money may not be available if the geopolitical context changes. Prior to this, it was believed that such measures were an extreme scenario that was almost impossible. Now this is a reality that all central banks take into account," the expert explains.
The process has started
France is not the first and not the only one who has resorted to such a solution. Germany, which has the second largest gold reserves in the world (about 3,350 tons), carried out a large-scale transfer back in 2013-2017, returning 300 tons from the United States. Nevertheless, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York still has an impressive share - 1,236 tons, or 37% of the German reserve.
In 2025-2026, representatives of the German ruling coalition, as well as activists of the European Taxpayers Association, made harsh statements, calling Donald Trump's policy unpredictable. Demands are increasingly being made in the Bundestag to analyze the risks of storing funds in the jurisdiction of a state that "can no longer be considered an absolutely reliable ally of the EU."
Italy is not far behind. Last year, a public campaign for the return of gold was launched in the country again. According to various estimates, of the 2,452 tons of Italian reserves, more than 800 tons are still in American storage facilities.
Poland, Hungary, Serbia and others also announced plans or already implemented measures for repatriation.
What Washington is losing
The outflow of foreign gold from the vaults of the Federal Reserve System does not cause direct economic damage to the United States. This process does not lead to fluctuations in the dollar's position in the foreign exchange market, does not affect the yield of Treasury bonds and does not deprive the treasury of the opportunity to cover budget gaps.
However, what is happening will affect the country's image in the long run. First, the repatriation of reserves is an alarming signal of declining confidence in the United States as a neutral guarantor and custodian, which undermines Washington's status as the center of the global settlement system. Secondly, the fewer foreign assets are under American control, the fewer levers of economic pressure remain at the disposal of the White House.
— There is an unpleasant signal in this for the United States. Their financial system has been a safe haven for reserves for decades. When even allies begin to gradually return assets, this does not bring down the system, but undermines trust — and that's what everything is based on," Kuznetsova believes.
In addition, against the background of these processes, the diversification of foreign exchange reserves in favor of the euro, the yuan and gold itself is accelerating. The precious metal is no longer just an anti-crisis cushion, acquiring the features of a symbol of state sovereignty and a guarantee against geopolitical storms.
Changing the financial order
Aliya Shamilova, an architect of financial solutions, noted in a conversation with Izvestia that there is an obvious sign of declining confidence in US Treasury securities.
— We see how gold has already become an alternative to the US government debt. The largest countries are getting rid of long—term US bonds slowly so as not to collapse the market, but the trend towards deglobalization is obvious," she points out.
In recent years, Washington has increasingly lost the trust of its creditors, and after the freezing and seizure of Russian assets, it became clear to many in the world that in a critical situation, any country's reserves could be next, the expert adds.
— The accelerating factors were pressure on the countries bordering the United States and Trump's tariffs. They are spurring de-dollarization even among allies. This was confirmed by France, which hastened to complete the process of returning its gold reserves to its homeland at a high gold price," the Izvestia interlocutor emphasizes.
According to the World Gold Council (WGS), 59% of central banks prefer to keep gold at home rather than abroad. According to the analyst, the more acute international relations are, the sooner this percentage will grow.
Thus, the storage of gold bars inside the country of the owner becomes a matter of strategic security and a symbol of loss of confidence in the United States. The decline in US Treasury securities in the portfolios of central banks and the build-up of gold reserves within states once again confirm the change in the global financial order, where the dollar is losing strength, giving way to gold or a multicurrency system.
For the United States, this is a warning signal of an imminent and massive reduction in those willing to buy the country's government bonds.
Yulia Kuznetsova believes that France is acting rationally in this regard. It does not "escape" from the system, but simply reduces the potential risk: it returns assets to direct control.
— Other countries have already done the same thing before, but then it looked like an exception. It's becoming a trend now. After all, gold is a special asset. These are not bonds or foreign exchange reserves that can be "frozen" through the financial infrastructure. If it is physically located in the country, this is the maximum level of control. That is why central banks are starting to review exactly where their gold lies," the expert explains.
EU countries can follow France's example, as there is a change in mindset now. After the case of the Russian reserves, the states are afraid that this may affect them too. And then they start acting based on risk management.
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