France has repatriated 129 tonnes of its gold, which had been held in the US
This is according to RFI.
This concerns 129 tonnes of gold – approximately 5% of France’s reserves, which were stored in New York.
It was sold, replaced with new bars purchased in Europe, and transported to Paris. Now all of France’s gold reserves are held within the country.
In total, France holds around 2,437 tonnes of gold – the fourth largest amount in the world.
The operation took place from July 2025 to January 2026. Twenty-six transactions were carried out: the old gold was sold, and the new gold was purchased to modern standards, taking advantage of record-high gold prices.
In effect, this was a complex financial operation yielding a profit of €12.8 billion.
The old gold could not simply be transported, as the old ingots did not meet current market requirements. They would have had to be remelted, and transport would have been difficult and expensive.
Therefore, the Banque de France decided to sell the old gold and buy new, more standardised gold.
France has long been reducing its dependence on foreign vaults and began withdrawing gold from the US and Britain as far back as the 1960s. The process of modernising reserves has been ongoing since 2005, and the update is scheduled to be fully completed by 2028.
Officially, Paris insists that this is a purely economic decision. The head of the central bank, François Villeroy de Galhau, stated that this is a matter of standards and the convenience of transactions on the European market.
But the geopolitical context suggests that Europe is beginning to have doubts about the US: mistrust is growing in Europe against the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s policies.
For example, there are already calls in Germany to withdraw gold from the United States due to the ‘unpredictability’ of American policy. Germany still holds around 1,236 tonnes of gold in the US (37% of its reserves).
