By Robert Lambourne
Thursday, June 4, 2026
Gold swaps undertaken by the Bank for International Settlements on behalf of its member central banks are estimated to have increased strongly in March, up 77 tonnes, rising from 104 tonnes to 181 tonnes, before falling by 47 tonnes to 134 tonnes in April.
This is still a notable increase from the swaps estimated at the end of last year, 56 tonnes.
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The swaps total can be estimated from the bank’s monthly statements of account, with the March and April statements being published simultaneously this week:
https://www.bis.org/banking/balsheet/statofacc260331.pdf [2]
https://www.bis.org/banking/balsheet/statofacc260430.pdf [3]
The BIS' gold swaps are the strongest contemporary proof of regular interventions in the gold market by central banks, interventions for which the BIS long has provided camouflage, even as many central bank members of the bank seem to have defected in recent years from the longstanding Western government policy of gold price suppression.
The volume of swaps has recovered strongly in the last 12 months after a period of subdued levels.
BIS gold swaps peaked at an estimated 594 tonnes in November 2017.
The BIS has actually advertised to potential central bank members that its services include surreptitious interventions in the gold and currency markets:
https://www.gata.org/node/11012 [4]
Gold involved in BIS swaps is believed held by a commercial bullion bank -- probably as a custodian of a gold exchange-traded fund -- and is swapped for dollars via the BIS, probably on behalf of the U.S. Federal Reserve, which then can apply the gold in the markets as necessary to influence prices.
The steady decline in BIS gold swaps in recent years may correlate with bullion bank JPMorganChase's having become co-custodian of the gold attributed to the major gold exchange-traded fund, GLD, and gaining access to that gold for intervention, whether for its own purposes or the U.S. government's if the bank functions as a broker in gold for the government, as it historically has done for other governments:
https://gata.org/node/22108 [5]
https://www.gata.org/node/22132 [6]
Since ordinary shareholders of GLD cannot redeem their shares for actual metal -- a right restricted to the big bullion bank "authorized participants" associated with the fund -- it may be relatively easy for JPMorganChase and other bullion banks to juggle claims to GLD gold that add up to more metal than the ETF actually has, thereby perpetuating the gross "rehypothecation" of gold in various markets.
Only in its annual report has the BIS explicitly reported its gold swap total. Those reports have always confirmed this analyst's monthly estimates and the bank has never disputed them.
Here are the BIS’ estimated gold swap tonnage totals since December 2024:
Apr 2026: 134
Mar 2026: 181
Feb 2026: 104
Jan 2026: 106
Dec 2025: 56
Nov 2025: 39
Oct 2025: 54
Sep 2025: 54
Aug 2025: 30
Jul 2025: 34
Jun 2025: 34
May 2025: 32
Apr 2025: 5
Mar 2025: 10
Feb 2025: 22
Jan 2025: 16
Dec 2024: 78
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Robert Lambourne is a retired business executive in the United Kingdom who consults for GATA about the Bank for International Settlements and U.S. government debt.
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