Germany, Italy Face Pressure to Repatriate US$245 Billion in Gold as Trust
Germany and Italy are facing mounting domestic pressure to repatriate more than a third of their gold reserves — worth an estimated US$245 billion — currently held in New York by the US Federal Reserve.
Germany and Italy hold the world’s second and third largest gold reserves, trailing only the US. A substantial portion of this metal is stored overseas, primarily in Manhattan’s Federal Reserve Bank.
This longstanding arrangement, based largely on postwar financial realities and New York’s role as a major global gold-trading hub, is now being questioned by officials and commentators across Europe’s political spectrum.
Fabio De Masi, a former member of European Parliament now affiliated with Germany’s new left-wing populist BSW party, told the Financial Times there are “strong arguments” to bring more of Germany’s bullion back home.
Taxpayers Association of Europe (TAE) President Michael Jäger echoed the same sentiments last month: “Trump wants to control the Fed, which would also mean controlling the German gold reserves in the US,” he told Reuters.
“It’s our money, it should be brought back.”
Similar calls are being echoed in Italy, where economic commentator Enrico Grazzini recently warned that “leaving 43 per cent of Italy’s gold reserves in America under the unreliable Trump administration is very dangerous for the national interest.” He was writing in Il Fatto Quotidiano ahead of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s visit to Washington.
Fueling this renewed concern are statements made by US President Donald Trump, who earlier this month warned that he may have to “force something” if the US Federal Reserve does not lower interest rates.
Trump has also made direct appeals to the Department of Energy to stimulate oil production, signaling what critics interpret as increasing politicization of independent institutions like the Fed.
The TAE has urged both Germany and Italy to reconsider their reliance on the Fed. “We are very concerned about Trump tampering with the Federal Reserve Bank’s independence,” Jäger said. “Our recommendation is to bring the (German and Italian) gold home to ensure European central banks have unlimited control over it at any given point in time.”
Public skepticism over the safety of foreign gold holdings is not new.
In Germany, a grassroots movement that began in 2010 eventually prompted the Bundesbank to repatriate 674 metric tons of gold from New York and Paris between 2013 and 2017. The operation, which cost 7 million euros, resulted in half of Germany’s reserves being stored domestically by 2020. Nevertheless, 37 percent of its gold remains in the US.
Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party once echoed similar sentiments while in opposition, pledging in 2019 to bring Italy’s gold back home. But since assuming power in 2022, Meloni has largely gone silent on the issue.
Skepticism about US stewardship is not limited to political rhetoric.
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