Last year, the Deutsche Bundesbank successfully completed the transfer of its gold stocks from New York. "The transfers were carried out without any disruptions or irregularities," said Carl-Ludwig Thiele, Member of the Bundesbank’s Executive Board, at a press conference in Frankfurt am Main. "The storage plan for New York, which envisaged the relocation of 300 tonnes of gold from New York to Frankfurt, was fully completed in 2016," Mr Thiele noted. In 2017, the Bundesbank will relocate to Frankfurt all of the gold reserves still held in custodian storage in Paris, he added.

© Frank Rumpenhorst

© Frank Rumpenhorst

© Frank Rumpenhorst

© Frank Rumpenhorst

© Frank Rumpenhorst

© Frank Rumpenhorst

© Frank Rumpenhorst

© Frank Rumpenhorst

© Frank Rumpenhorst

© Frank Rumpenhorst

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Last year, the Bundesbank transferred a total of over 216 tonnes of gold to Germany from storage locations abroad: 111 tonnes from New York and 105 tonnes from Paris. This means that since 2013, the Bundesbank has successively relocated just short of 283 tonnes of gold from Paris and 300 tonnes of gold from New York to Frankfurt am Main. As at 31 December 2016, 47.9 percent of Germany's gold holdings were in storage in Frankfurt, 36.6 percent in New York, 12.8 percent in London and the remaining 2.7 percent in Paris.

Storage plan for Germany’s gold reserves

This means that the Bundesbank will consequently hold half of Germany's gold reserves in its own vaults in Frankfurt am Main well ahead of schedule. According to the gold storage plan unveiled in 2013, the Bundesbank intended to store half of Germany’s gold reserves in Germany from 2020 onwards. The other half will remain in custodian storage at the partner central banks: 37 percent at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York and the remaining 13 percent at the Bank of England in London.

With its storage plan, the Bundesbank focuses on the two primary functions of the gold reserves: to build trust and confidence domestically, and to be able to exchange gold for foreign currencies at gold trading centres abroad within a short space of time. As France, like Germany, is a euro-area member state, all gold reserves currently held in custodian storage at the Banque de France will be transferred to Germany during the relocation process.
Second largest holder of gold in the world

The Bundesbank currently holds around 3,378 tonnes of gold. At the end of 2016, these gold stocks were worth approximately €119.3 billion. This makes Germany the second largest holder of gold in the world after the United States. These gold holdings make up two-thirds of Germany’s foreign reserves; the rest is accounted for by foreign currency reserves and claims on the International Monetary Fund (IMF), such as special drawing rights (SDRs).

As at 31 December 2016, the Bundesbank’s gold reserves were stored at the following locations.