A global wave of "gold relocation" is sweeping across international markets.

In recent months, the Netherlands and France have successively transported gold reserves back from the United States, while India has also repatriated bullion from both the US and the UK. Meanwhile, Hong Kong and Singapore are simultaneously bolstering their gold market infrastructure, vying to become Asia's premier gold trading hubs. Latest data reveals that Asian markets now absorb nearly 70% of global physical investment gold. As gold flows eastward, is pricing power set to follow?

Central banks worldwide trigger a "gold rush" homeward

The Dutch central bank announced on September 2 that it transferred approximately 86 tonnes of gold reserves worth around $12 billion from New York and Ottawa to London between March and August. France followed suit, completing the replacement of 129 tonnes of gold stored at the New York Fed between July 2025 and January 2026, entirely eliminating French gold holdings in the United States that dated back to the 1920s. The Reserve Bank of India also repatriated 104.2 tonnes of gold from the US and UK between October 2025 and March 2026, raising its domestic gold reserve share from 38% to 77%.

Despite these shifts, London and New York continue to dominate global gold trading. World Gold Council data shows that daily trading volumes in both cities during the first half of 2026 far exceeded other markets, with the Breakingviews column noting that London and New York still trade more than five times the volume of Hong Kong. However, the landscape is gradually shifting: a World Gold Council report from June revealed that the proportion of central banks choosing to store gold at the New York Fed has declined from 17% to 14%. The same report indicated that over the past 12 months, 9% of central banks have increased domestic gold storage, while 10% have further diversified their overseas storage locations.

Hong Kong and Singapore compete for gold hub status

While multiple central banks retreat from Western storage facilities, Singapore and Hong Kong are aggressively positioning themselves as gold trading hubs. The Monetary Authority of Singapore announced in June 2026 that the Singapore Exchange would establish a gold over-the-counter clearing system within the year. Hong Kong launched trial operations of its central gold clearing and settlement system in July, introducing the "HAU" price code. Additionally, the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited completed upgrades to its US dollar gold futures in July and resumed trading.

Wang Hongying, Dean of the China (Hong Kong) Financial Derivatives Research Institute, noted that Asia-Pacific accounts for 70% of global physical investment gold demand, providing a solid foundation for pricing power to shift toward Asia. A September 2025 report from State Street Corporation revealed that Asia-Pacific demand reached 69% of global demand by mid-2025, surpassing the 63% average seen during 2010-2019. World Gold Council data from late April showed Asian investor demand reached 474 tonnes in the first quarter of 2026, up 42% year-on-year, marking the second-highest quarterly record in history. According to the Financial Times, Hong Kong imported nearly 100 tonnes of gold from Russia in the first seven months of this year, a threefold increase year-on-year and a historic high.

Wang believes that geopolitical conflicts have diminished trust in the international financial system, making the shift of gold from Western nations to neutral regions and the eastward movement of pricing power a probable long-term trend. BMO Capital Markets' latest research indicates that Asian demand, led by China, remains a crucial pillar of the global gold market. As China's influence in the gold market continues to strengthen, global gold pricing power will gradually transfer from traditional Western centers to China.

Li Gang, Research Director at the China Foreign Exchange Investment Research Institute, emphasized that the eastward movement of gold trading is a genuine trend. Asia is inherently the world's largest gold consumption region with enormous demand, making the concentration of trading, storage, and clearing in Asia practically feasible. However, he cautioned that the eastward shift does not mean Western centers will be rapidly replaced; instead, a multi-center structure of "Western pricing plus Asian trading" is more likely to emerge in the short term.

Asia's growing influence reshapes market dynamics

Wang Hongying pointed out that the gold pricing system has evolved over a century, with the US dollar still playing a central role. Over 70% of global gold financial trading volume is concentrated in London's LBMA over-the-counter market and the US COMEX futures market—a structure unlikely to change dramatically in the near term. Li Gang believes that Asia's core path to greater influence lies in transitioning from a consumption center to a pricing and financial hub. The greatest obstacle is not insufficient gold reserves, but rather the inadequate concentration of international capital, liquidity, and financial infrastructure. Gold pricing ultimately depends on depth, breadth, and global capital participation, not merely physical trading volume.

According to a Breakingviews column from August 7, London cleared an average of 16.1 million ounces daily in May 2026, with vaults holding 9,464 tonnes of gold by end of June. The column noted that "true liquidity is built on trust. Legal infrastructure matters as much as vault space."

Regarding the competitive advantages of Hong Kong and Singapore as gold trading hubs, Wang noted that Hong Kong leverages mainland China's massive physical demand and RMB settlement mechanisms to support multi-currency trading. Singapore's strengths lie in its political neutrality, international trading system, and mature market-making mechanisms. Li Gang believes Hong Kong's greatest advantage is its connection to both mainland China and international markets, while Singapore's main weakness is the lack of a super-large-scale physical market like China's. Hong Kong possesses the conditions to become a global-level gold trading center, but the key lies in whether it can establish a complete ecosystem encompassing physical delivery, RMB pricing, international clearing, financial products, and pricing mechanisms.

Meanwhile, the London Bullion Market Association is considering advancing its morning gold auction time to facilitate Asian trader participation. LBMA CEO Ruth Crowell stated that the adjustment aims to "reflect market conditions during Asian hours and promote price discovery during that period"—itself a testament to Asia's rising influence.