{"id":518212,"date":"2026-04-07T20:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T20:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/518212\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T20:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T20:12:16","slug":"france-pulls-all-gold-out-of-us-federal-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/518212\/","title":{"rendered":"France Pulls All Gold Out of US Federal Reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"

France<\/a> has sold its remaining gold<\/a> holdings that were held in the U.S. Federal Reserve<\/a>, completing a long-term plan to bring its gold reserves home and update its old stock to meet modern international standards.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s central bank, the Banque de France, made nearly 13 billion euros, or around $15 billion, after upgrading 129 tonnes of gold between July 2025 and January 2026 and replacing it with new, compliant bars stored in Paris.<\/p>\n

Why It Matters<\/p>\n

France\u2019s central bank has emphasized that the move is a practical financial decision rather than a political one.<\/p>\n

By consolidating its reserves in Paris and upgrading to modern-standard bars, France has made its gold safer to manage and easier to sell or trade internationally. The sale also demonstrates how central banks can capitalize on favorable market conditions and generate substantial profits.<\/p>\n

What To Know<\/p>\n

The Banque de France sold 129 tonnes of gold between July 2025 and January 2026, about 5 percent of its total reserves, which had been held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.<\/p>\n

Rather than refining and transporting the old stock, the bank purchased an equivalent amount of new, compliant gold in Europe, which now sits in Paris alongside the rest of France\u2019s reserves.<\/p>\n

The overall size of France\u2019s gold reserve, around 2,437 tons, remains the same.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The upgrade involved replacing older, non-standard gold bars with modern ones that meet international rules for weight, purity, and certification, making them easier to trade globally.<\/p>\n

As the price of gold has been particularly high <\/a>in recent months, the transaction generated billions in profit for the Banque de France.<\/p>\n

The central bank reported 11 billion euros generated in exceptional foreign exchange income in 2025 from the upgrade, with total gains from the operation reaching nearly 13 billion euros when taking into account 2026 transactions, Reuters reported.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

France\u2019s central bank\u2019s Governor Fran\u00e7ois\u202fVilleroy de Galhau said the new bars were to be kept in Paris because higher-standard gold is traded on a European market, and that the decision was not politically motivated, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n

France has been gradually modernizing its gold reserves since 2005, with the bulk of its gold previously moved from the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England back to France between 1963 and 1966.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What People Are Saying<\/p>\n

The Banque de France said in a statement: \u201cIn 2025 and at the start of 2026, while the volume of gold reserves remained unchanged, the Banque de France had to align a residual portion (5 percent) with technical guidelines, resulting in a significant realized currency gain. This exceptional foreign exchange income totaled 11 billion euros for 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Happens Next<\/p>\n

The Bank of \u2060France \u200bhas 134 tons of gold to bring up to modern international standards, which it aims to \u200bdo by 2028, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France has sold its remaining gold holdings that were held in the U.S. Federal Reserve, completing a long-term…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,4168,819,1568,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-518212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-federal-reserve","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-gold","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}