France pulls last gold held in US for $15B gain
The Bank of France (BdF) says it has pulled the remaining gold held in New York and replaced them with a similar amount of gold bars in its vaults in Paris.
The gold amounted to 129 tonnes — or about 5% of the bank’s total holdings, according to the bank’s press release issued last week .
France, one of the world’s leading gold holders, has been storing some of its bullion with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since the late 1920s.
However, an operation to repatriate its gold holdings began in the 1960s leading up to the US termination of the Bretton Woods system, which effectively stopped foreign governments from exchanging dollars for gold.
Despite that, France still held a small portion of its gold with the Reserve Bank of New York.
Over the past 20 years , the BdF has also been replacing its “older” or “non‑standard” gold holdings — such as those in New York — with bars that meet modern international standards.