Now it is planning to bring back home a portion of those reserves. ET explains why RBI keeps a big chunk of its gold overseas and the risks, post the West freezing Russian assets.As at end-March 2024, the Reserve Bank held 822.10 metric tonnes of gold, of which 408.31 metric tonnes were held domestically. It had shipped 46.91 tonnes of gold to England then and raised a $405 million loan which also included some pledge with the Bank of Japan. Although the loan was repaid by November 1991, the Reserve Bank chose to keep the gold in the Bank of England vault more for logistics reasons. Besides gold held in the form of certificates could be used for trading entering into swaps and earning a small return.
