Central banks around the world are repatriating their gold reserves and diversifying their third-country storage locations, according to the Financial Times, citing an annual survey by the World Gold Council.
The study—which was answered by 76 central banks between February and May—also found that governments are increasing their gold holdings as a share of reserves overall, the result of both a dramatic spike in the precious metal’s price and a shift away from the dollar as a proportion of reserve holdings.
Leading the way are France and India, which over the past few years have repatriated massive amounts of gold from the U.S.
But 19 percent of the survey’s respondents have also increased the share of their gold holdings stored domestically or else diversified their foreign storage locations over the past year, up from 7 percent in 2025.
While New York and London remain the two main storage locations for the world’s gold reserves, fewer central bankers report storing their gold in both cities than last year.
If rapid outflows of investment represent the market registering immediate country risk, these kinds of shifts in central bank reserve holdings signal longer-term concerns of a systemic nature.
