It is not only Indian homeowners looking to add gold to their lockers. On Dhanteras, the Reserve Bank of India announced that it has shipped an additional 102 tons of gold from the Bank of England's vaults in London to safe sites around the country.
The Indian central bank held 855 tonnes of yellow metal at the end of September, with 510.5 tonnes stored domestically, according to the most recent report on foreign exchange reserve management. Since September 2022, 214 tons have entered the country as the RBI and government sought to secure its stocks amid rising geopolitical concerns around the globe. Many government officials believe it is safer to keep gold at home.
On May 31, it was disclosed that around 100 million tons had been transported from the UK, and that a similar quantity was scheduled to be exported again. The change was the first significant shift since gold was phased out in the early 1990s, when the government was compelled to guarantee it due to a balance of payments crisis.
Like the last time, the RBI and government conducted a covert expedition including special aircraft and detailed security procedures to carry the gold, acutely aware that the information should not be leaked. Furthermore, the shipments require a tax exemption. Authorities have not ruled out further movement, though substantial shipments are unlikely this year.
The Bank of England and the Bank for International Settlements now have 324 tonnes of precious metal in safe custody, with the majority remaining in the UK. A little more than 20 tons of RBI holdings were held in gold deposits.
The Bank of England, the second largest gold custodian after the New York Federal Reserve, provides safe custody for the United Kingdom's and other central banks' gold holdings. The "bullion warehouse"—built in 1697 and later expanded to deal with the gold rush from Brazil to Australia and California to South Africa—holds around 4 lakh bars of gold. At the beginning of September, these vaults housed nearly 5,350 tons (or almost 17 crore fine troy ounces) of gold.
Quick liquidity due to access to the London bullion market was noted as a significant benefit of holding gold at the Bank of England. RBI data also revealed that the RBI's gold holdings had climbed, accounting for 9.3% of India's foreign exchange reserves at the end of September, up from 8.1% at the end of March.
