My understanding was Germany requested their gold and the FRBNY said “sure, give us 7 years to get it together”. I suspect Germany’s gold isn’t actually there any more. Germany had no choice but to agree to the 7 year withdrawal if they wanted any gold at all. Had they created a stink it would be obvious to all the other countries that have gold in storage there that it is in fact not there and would create panic, gold prices would go through the roof and there’d be no way the FRBNY could afford to replace the missing gold. That’s my theory.
Oh the gold is still there. They just don’t it to glow. It’s only a matter of time.
There are a number of reasons for the seven-year deal. First, no one much has come around to ask for this repatriated deal before, so they don’t really have a real process. Toss in the security involved at two major airports. Then you have to figure the containers to be used (likely to have a GPS mounted on it). This all would add up. And yes, there might be some odd situation where the gold really isn’t held there, and no one wants to admit that there’s a bunker over in Kansas at 3k feet down where the gold really sits (I’ve heard that rumor before).