France pulled all its gold from the NY Fed — and made $15 billion doing it

France sold all 129 tonnes of gold it had stored at the New York Federal Reserve, then rebuilt its position by buying from other European central banks — booking a €13 billion capital gain in the process. Every ounce of French gold is now held domestically, deep in the vaults of La Souterraine, the Banque de France's underground storage facility south of Paris.

The repatriation wasn't driven by panic or politics, at least not publicly. France had been storing gold at the Fed since World War II, as many European nations did — the logic being that gold held in Manhattan was safe from any invasion that might sweep the continent. That logic has aged in complicated ways. According to Mining.com, France executed the move methodically: sell the New York position, then buy equivalent tonnage from European neighbors, ending up with the same amount of gold at a much lower cost basis.

The €13 billion gain came from the difference between what France originally paid for the gold and what it fetched at today's prices — gold is up roughly 350% over the past decade.

France holds about 2,437 tonnes of gold total, making it the fourth-largest national gold reserve in the world. Germany has been having a similar conversation — its central bank repatriated 300 tonnes from New York and Paris between 2013 and 2017 in response to public pressure.

Previously:

• Germany urged to pull €164B in gold from US vaults