Argentina’s Central Bank and auditors clash over gold reserves

Argentina’s National Audit Office (AGN), the public-sector oversight body, has raised questions about the management of the Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA) under Santiago Bausili, a close ally of Economy Minister Luis Caputo.

In its latest audit of the Central Bank’s financial statements, the AGN said gold derivatives transactions resulted in losses of US$1 billion in 2025.

The agency highlighted that, for hedging purposes, the BCRA “entered into dollar-settled derivatives transactions using part of its gold reserves as collateral or underlying assets.”

These transactions resulted in a loss equivalent to US$1 billion, which was paid in foreign currency.

In a public statement, AGN head Juan Manuel Olmos said the institution had conducted transactions “speculating on a particular trajectory for international gold prices” and had “gotten the calculation wrong.”

When gold prices rise, the BCRA loses money on these contracts; when prices fall, it makes money. In 2025, gold prices on international markets surged 64% to US$4,320 an ounce, marking their biggest annual increase since 1979.

Olmos added to the controversy by adding that, since the agency began auditing the Central Bank’s financial statements, “a loss of this magnitude had never been recorded, nor had physical gold reserves ever been used for risk-bearing transactions.”

Despite these criticisms, the AGN concluded that the financial statements fairly present, “in all material respects,” the Central Bank’s financial position and results in accordance with its accounting framework.

The AGN also acknowledged that the BCRA gained more than AR8trillion(US5.4 billion) from the revaluation of its physical gold holdings.

Those gains were partly offset by losses on the hedging contracts. On a net basis, however, the Central Bank said it remained in profit, according to a statement released on Thursday

The Central Bank’s response Bausili’s institution argued that the performance of derivatives must be assessed alongside that of the underlying asset they hedge, rather than in isolation.

In its statement, the BCRA said the transactions carried out in 2025 were part of a hedging policy covering 100% of its gold position.

According to the Central Bank, the objective is to protect international reserves against losses that could result from a significant decline in the price of one of its main assets.

It explained that in years when gold performs well, as it did in 2025, derivatives contracted as a hedge tend to generate negative results.

“Like any hedging transaction, these instruments entail a cost,” the monetary authority said.

The BCRA also accused the AGN’s current leadership of seeking to discredit its management for purely political purposes.

The Central Bank criticized the AGN for acknowledging the hedging purpose of the transactions before describing them as speculative. “A financial transaction cannot be both a hedge and speculative at the same time,” it argued.

It further accused the AGN’s leadership of seeking to “discredit the BCRA’s management” and maintained that such conduct “undermines the institution’s institutional integrity.”

The BCRA also said the transactions have been common practice since 2007.

According to the institution, between 2007 and 2011, payments for similar hedges were nearly twice as large relative to the market value of its gold holdings as they were in 2025. It added that neither the AGN nor external auditors had raised objections during that period.

The fate of the BCRA’s gold Olmos also explained that the AGN is conducting a separate performance audit of the BCRA’s physical gold reserves and their transfer abroad.

Unlike the audit of the financial statements, which examines the figures for fiscal year 2025, this review focuses on how the gold is managed and transferred.

In 2024, Economy Minister Luis Caputo confirmed that Argentina had sent part of its gold reserves abroad but provided no details about the transaction or the assets’ destination.

Last month, during a presentation before the Senate, Bausili confirmed that “part of the international gold reserves is deposited at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Switzerland.”

According to Olmos, the report will establish “why the decision was made to transfer the gold abroad, where it was sent, and whether it generated any specific benefit for the Central Bank or for anyone else.”

He added that the report is currently with the Central Bank, which must submit its response to the AGN.