Skip to content
TheGoldMagazine

Topic hub

Central-bank reserves

Official-sector buying, repatriation and the reserve-management logic behind it.

Central banks are the single largest identifiable holders of above-ground gold, and since 2022 they have been net buyers at a pace not seen since the 1960s. The motive is rarely return: gold pays no coupon. It is an asset that carries no counterparty and cannot be frozen by the issuer of another currency.

Our coverage tracks who is buying, how reserves are custodied in London and New York, and why several states have moved metal back onto their own soil.

Start here

Polished steel and brass vault door of a central bank gold reserve, lit from one side

Markets · 17 min read

Why Central Banks Started Buying Gold Again

For three decades official institutions were net sellers of bullion, and the policy consensus treated the metal as a museum piece. Then, quietly, the world's reserve managers reversed. The reasons are less about inflation than about the plumbing of settlement.

Ingrid Sørensen · 6 August 2026

More on central-bank reserves

Terms used in this topic

Good Delivery bar
The wholesale unit of the London market: a bar of roughly 400 troy ounces (about 12.4 kg) at minimum 995 fineness, carrying the stamp of an accredited refiner, a serial number, the year of manufacture and the assayed fineness. Weight is variable rather than fixed, so bars are traded on their actual fine gold content. A bar that leaves the vault chain of custody must be re-assayed before it is accepted back.
Allocated vs unallocated gold
Allocated gold means specific, serial-numbered bars held in your name; the vault is a custodian and the metal is not on its balance sheet, so it survives the custodian's insolvency. Unallocated gold is a claim on a bullion bank for a quantity of fine gold, not on identified bars — cheaper and more liquid, but an unsecured credit exposure. Most wholesale trading clears unallocated; most long-term reserve holding is allocated.
Central bank reserve gold
Gold held by a monetary authority as a foreign reserve asset. It carries no counterparty and no currency of issue, which is why it is bought most heavily by central banks seeking to reduce exposure to any single sovereign. Holdings are reported monthly to the IMF, usually valued at market price, and are often stored abroad — a large share of the world's reserve gold sits in New York, London and Basel rather than at home.

Questions readers ask

Why do central banks hold gold?
Because it is a reserve asset with no issuer and no counterparty risk. It diversifies away from the currencies of other sovereigns and remains usable as collateral in a crisis, which is why holdings rose sharply after reserve assets were frozen in 2022.
Where is central-bank gold stored?
Predominantly in the Bank of England's London vaults and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, plus domestic vaults. London holdings sit inside the loco London clearing system, which is why bars must meet Good Delivery specification.

Other topics

Reported from the Markets desk.