Germany shifts more gold home in 2016

BERLIN: Germany’s central bank said Thursday it sped up the process of bringing its gold home from foreign vaults in 2016, moving more than 200 tons from New York and Paris.
The Bundesbank relocated some 216 tons of the precious metal to its headquarters in Frankfurt last year, including 111 tons from New York and 105 from Paris.
That amount was a slight increase over the 2015 total of 210 tons, while 2014 saw 120 tons moved and 2013 just 37 tons.
During the Cold War, the Bundesbank kept much of its reserves outside the country for fear of Soviet invasion.
Scares that there might be less gold in the foreign vaults, that the ingots stored abroad might be tampered with, or that Germany might not be able to retrieve its gold have long been a feature of politics.
But the Bundesbank finally launched a relocation program after authorities demanded more transparency about how much gold it held and where during Europe’s debt crisis.
Its plan calls for the majority of the stock to be held in Germany by 2020, including all of the bank’s remaining gold in Paris.
By December 31, 1,619 tons of the Bundesbank’s gold holdings were in Frankfurt — or 47.9 percent of the total — compared with 1,236 tons in New York, 432 tons in London and 91 tons in Paris.
With the progress made in 2016, all of the 300 tons needed from New York under the plan have now been moved, said Bundesbank board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele.