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Bank of Algeria Opens the Banking System to Gold for the First Time

7 November 2026 · Algeria Now

Algerian banks will soon be able to buy, sell, store and lend against gold under a regulation that sets out, for the first time, how the central bank and commercial lenders may operate in the metal. Regulation 26-04 of the Bank of Algeria, dated 17 September 2026, appeared in Official Journal No. 77 of 4 November. It aims to bring a cherished household asset into the formal economy.

What banks may now do

The text applies to the Bank of Algeria, banks and financial institutions, and implements Articles 41 and 79 of the monetary and banking law of 21 June 2023. The central bank may trade gold on the local market, spot and forward, and may buy from authorized official agencies. Banks and financial institutions, within the scope of their licences, may trade gold, accept deposits and hold it in custody, open gold accounts, take it as a pledge, and grant loans secured by it.

Accounts may be allocated, where specific physical gold belongs to the holder, or unallocated, a claim on a pooled stock. They are not covered by the deposit guarantee system, so institutions must carry suitable insurance.

A bank's net gold position, long or short, must stay within 10 percent of its regulatory own funds. Gold-backed loans follow the usual prudential rules, and gold accepted as collateral carries an 80 percent weighting. Banks must also run internal controls against money laundering and terrorist financing, including checks on purity, origin, traceability and documentation. Detailed criteria for eligible gold and for opening accounts are left to later central bank instructions.

Until now, gold in Algeria has circulated largely between individuals and jewellers, often informally. It is a traditional store of value, given at weddings and passed down in families, and no official figure for household holdings has been published. The new framework is meant to make the metal traceable and usable as collateral, and to create a reference price.

It follows tighter anti-money-laundering rules for gold and jewellery dealers, published in the Official Journal in August 2025. It also fits a wider push to draw money held outside banks into the formal circuit, a theme of the debate on the 2027 finance bill, which deputies will vote on 16 November.

What comes next

The key tests lie in the instructions still to come: which gold will qualify, how fast banks build the vaults and assay capacity the activity requires, and whether households trust institutions with their jewellery and bars.

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Bank of Algeria Opens the Banking System to Gold for the First Time

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