French central bank books $15 billion gain on gold reserve upgrade

PARIS, March 24 (Reuters) - The Bank of France has booked one-off capital gains of nearly 13 billion euros ($15.1 billion) from an upgrade of its gold reserves since last July as it benefited from high gold prices, the central bank said on Tuesday.

Over the past two decades, the bank has been gradually replacing older or non-standard gold holdings with bars that meet modern international standards. A 2024 internal audit recommended completing the process for the small share of French gold still held in New York.

The residual stock of 129 metric tons, or about 5% of France's total gold reserves, was upgraded by selling the gold and buying compliant bars between July 2025 and January 2026 rather than going to the trouble of trying to get it refined.

That programme is now complete, the bank said.

The overall size of France's gold reserves remained unchanged at roughly 2,437 tons, but the new bars are now held in Paris rather than New York.

Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said the new bars were kept in Paris because the higher-standard gold is traded on a European market, and that the decision was not politically motivated.

Because the transactions took place during a period of high gold prices, the operation generated an exceptional capital gain of 12.8 billion euros, split between 11 billion booked in 2025 and 1.8 billion in 2026.

The gain allowed the central bank to swing to a net profit of 8.1 billion euros for 2025 after a net loss of 7.7 billion euros in 2024.

The Bank of France still has 134 tons of gold, mostly older bars and coins held in Paris, to bring up to standard, which it aims to do by 2028.

($1 = 0.8630 euros) (Reporting by Leigh Thomas, editing by Andrei Khalip)