The Central Bank of Bolivia (BCB) recorded gold reserves of 24.3 tonnes at 31 August 2026 in its report on gold reserve operations for May to August, issued under Law 1503, with 14.7 tonnes abroad and 9.6 tonnes in its own vaults, against 19.4 and 4.1 tonnes at 30 April. Of the metal abroad, 12.3 tonnes are time deposits of two to twelve months with Toronto-Dominion Bank (5.0), UBS (3.0), Bank of Montreal (3.0) and Deutsche Bank (1.3), and 2.4 tonnes are with JPMorgan Chase, named in the report as custodian bank; the total includes interest accrued on the deposits. Over the four months the BCB bought 5.4 tonnes on the domestic market, 7.7 tonnes since January, delivered 5.4 tonnes under two forward sales maturing in June and August, bought 0.8 tonnes on the international market to complete the June delivery and converted no gold into foreign currency.
Interest accrues on the 12.3 tonnes because each receiving bank holds the deposited metal on its own balance sheet until maturity. In the LBMA’s guide to the OTC market, an unallocated holding is a general entitlement to metal whose holder is an unsecured creditor of the bank; allocated metal is held for the owner as specific bars listed by number, weight and fineness. On that basis 12.3 of the 14.7 tonnes abroad are claims on four banks, and only the 2.4 tonnes at JPMorgan Chase appear in the report as custody.
Metal in the BCB’s vaults rose by 5.5 tonnes while the BCB bought 5.4 tonnes domestically and suspended external shipments after transport to Dubai was disrupted from 28 February 2026. On 18 August 2026 the BCB’s board authorised, by resolution R.D. 121/2026, the export to the United Arab Emirates of up to 8.96 tonnes of domestically bought gold in 889 bars and a bag of shavings, from which 8.37 tonnes of fine gold are expected, for refining and investment between September and December. Article 7 of Law 1503 provides for such gold to be refined abroad into London Good Delivery bars, and the two figures put fine gold at about 934 parts per thousand of gross weight. The LBMA’s Good Delivery Rules set a minimum fineness of 995.0 and a fine gold content of 350 to 430 troy ounces per bar, and loco-London transactions settle physically only in bars that meet them. The 1.2 tonnes due on 9 October 2026 under the remaining forward sale were, the report states, bought domestically.
R.D. 121/2026 fixes the destination country and the gross quantity. Whether the 8.37 tonnes emerge as London Good Delivery bars turns on the refiner’s standing on the LBMA’s Good Delivery List, and the report does not name the refiner.