According to The Economic Times, the operation took place between July 2025 and January 2026. Instead of physically transporting the old bars from New York to Paris, the regulator sold them on the US market at favorable prices and then bought an equivalent amount of gold on the European market and placed it in Paris.
Note: Historically, some French gold has been stored abroad since the 1920s. The return of the bars completes the process of gradually transferring reserves back into the country that began in the mid-20th century.
France has the largest “gold reserve”
According to the source, the 129 tons sold represented about 5% of France’s total gold reserves, which are now entirely in the French capital and amount to about 2,437 tons. Note that this is one of the largest gold reserves in the world.
Representatives of the Bank of France stressed that the decision was taken not for political reasons, but as part of a strategy to modernize the reserves. The country replaced old bullion bars, which do not meet modern standards, with new ones, which are more liquid on the international market.
As experts note, such operations reflect a global trend: central banks seek to keep gold inside the country, improve the quality of reserves and use the rise in prices for the precious metal to strengthen national finances.
