France sells its gold reserves in the USA. (symbol image)Image: imago
The Banque de France discreetly brings its gold holdings in New York back to Paris. She denies any connection to the uncertain US politics.
April 9, 2026, 3:05 p.mApril 9, 2026, 3:05 p.m
129 tons of gold, that’s no small feat. Especially not if you have to ship them across the Atlantic. The Banque de France, the French central bank, cleverly repatriated this remaining gold reserve in the USA to Paris.
The return costs by ship or plane across the Atlantic are colossal – financially, but also politically. Germany has been hesitating for years; Berlin doesn’t want to spoil things with the USA. France, which hoards 2,437 tons of gold, the fourth most after the United States, Germany and Italy, has less compunction about Americans.
The governor of the Banque de France, François Villeroy de Galhau, quietly began selling the ominous 129 tons of French gold in New York in July 2025. In January, six months later, he sold the last ton of gold in the USA. He simply used the proceeds to buy new gold in Europe. This saved the transfer across the Atlantic.
The clever approach had several advantages. Many of the French gold bars in the USA, some of which were very old, did not meet the current LBMA standard. Buying gold in Europe enables the modernization of all national gold stocks.
Wants the gold in France – The Governor of the Banque de France François Villeroy de Galhau. Image: KEYSTONE
Villeroy de Galhau was partly inspired by the Swiss model. After the turn of the millennium, the Confederation began to take back its US gold. The operation was completed in 2013. Today 70 percent of Swiss gold is located in Switzerland, the rest in England and Canada. With 1,040 tons of gold, Switzerland is number seven in the world.
Nice win
France has already had a gold reserve of 2,437 tons – and it will remain that way in the future. The important and significant difference: 100 percent of the French gold is now in French safes. And since Villeroy de Galhau chose the right time to sell and buy new gold, the shrewd bank governor even made a nice profit of 12.8 billion euros in view of the price increase. It’s just a shame that the proceeds can’t flow into France’s heavily indebted national budget: it cleans up the annual accounts of the Banque de France.
Villeroy de Galhau emphasizes that the repatriation operation is not based on the current world situation. In other words: France is not taking its gold back to the safe haven because of the unpredictable policies of US President Donald Trump. The operation has been running since July 2025.
But what is also true: France has always been keen on its independence from Uncle Sam. This attitude goes back to Charles de Gaulle. The first president of the Fifth Republic brought home French gold as early as 1960. Previously, many European and other countries, including France, had deposited gold reserves in the USA in order to secure the parity between gold and the dollar at the time. However, de Gaulle suspected that the weakening dollar could not remain linked to the safe value of gold forever. That’s why he had over 3,300 tons of gold withdrawn from the USA by 1966, which gave the coup de grace to the Bretton Woods financial system. The dollar lost value, the gold ounce climbed from 35 to 800 dollars in the following years and became today’s safe haven.
Even then, de Gaulle declaimed with his hand on his chest that he was not targeting the dollar and US-dominated world finance with the withdrawal of gold. If asked, President Emmanuel Macron would also dismiss such American suspicions. The fact remains that he believes his gold holdings are in better hands in Paris than with the large and increasingly unreliable NATO partner on the other side of the Atlantic. Better safe than sorry – especially these days. (aargauerzeitung.ch)