De Nederlandsche Bank announced on 2 September 2026 that it has relocated part of its gold reserves to London, moving approximately 86 tonnes between March and August 2026 out of the roughly 313 tonnes held in New York and Ottawa. London’s share of the Dutch holding rises from 18.1% to 32.1%, New York falls from 31.3% to 18.5%, Ottawa from 19.7% to 18.5%, and the 30.8% held at DNB’s Cash Centre in Zeist is unchanged. Total reserves stay at 612.4 tonnes. Approximately 59 tonnes were sold in New York and replaced by purchases of London metal; more than 27 tonnes were shipped physically from the United States and Canada to Zeist, and a matching quantity already meeting international market standards went from Zeist to London, which DNB states avoided remelting bars.
Metal accepted into the London market is governed by the LBMA Good Delivery specification: bars of 350–430 troy ounces, minimum fineness 995.0, produced by a refiner on the Good Delivery List. The standing attaches to a bar’s chain of integrity as well as to its assay — a bar holds Good Delivery status while it stays within LBMA-acceptable vaults and approved carriers, and a bar that leaves that chain is acceptable again only after re-assay or refining by a Good Delivery refiner. Refining ends the identity of the bar: the serial numbers do not survive it, and the weight list recording gross weight, fineness and fine weight bar by bar is reissued against new serials and new assay certificates, as is any allocation record built on them. The London market clears in 400 oz Good Delivery bars; 1 kg bars at 999.9 are specified, priced and settled in the Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai kilobar market. Heraeus and Argor-Heraeus SA are on the LBMA Good Delivery List for gold, so bars carrying those marks enter the chain at production and hold the standing for as long as vault placement and carriage stay inside it. The two routes DNB used are the two open to any holder whose bars sit outside the chain: sell the metal where it stands and buy Good Delivery bars in London, or ship into an acceptable vault and meet assay or refining on entry.
DNB’s decision covers its own reserve holdings and their distribution across Zeist, London, New York and Ottawa. The Good Delivery specification, the List and the rules on acceptable vaults are the LBMA’s, and the €72.2 billion carried against the 612.4 tonnes is DNB’s own valuation as at year-end 2025.