France pulls last gold held in US for $15B gain

The Bank of France (BdF) says it has pulled the remaining gold stored in New York and replaced it with a similar amount at its vaults in Paris.

Due to rising gold prices, the move helped the bank to generate a capital gain of 13 billion euros ($15 billion), bringing it to a net profit of 8.1 billion euros for the 2025 financial year after a net loss of 7.7 billion euros in 2024, the French bank said last week. 

The decision to keep the new bars in Paris is “not politically motivated,” as the higher-standard gold bars it bought were traded on a European market, BdF Governor ⁠Francois Villeroy de Galhau said.

France, one of the world’s leading gold holders, has been storing some of its bullion with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since the late 1920s. It amounted to 129 tonnes, or about 5% of the bank’s total holdings. It first began repatriating the gold in the 1960s, even before the U.S. under Nixon ended gold convertibility of the dollar at a fixed rate in 1971, dismantling the Bretton Woods system. 

Gold bar upgrade

Over the past 20 years, the BdF has also been replacing its “older” or “non‑standard” gold holdings — such as those in New York — with bars that meet ​modern international standards. It still has 134 tonnes of gold to bring up to standard, which it aims to ​do by 2028.

Under the recommendation of a 2024 internal audit, the bank went ahead to replace the U.S.-held gold between July 2025 and January 2026. But instead of refining and transporting the gold, it opted to sell the bars and purchase new bullion in Europe.

The overall size of France’s gold reserves still remained unchanged at roughly ​2,437 tonnes, which are now entirely held at the BdF’s underground vault in La Souterraine.

Fun fact: countries storing their gold in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is part of the premise of the third instalment in the Die Hard movie franchise.