Several central banks across Europe and the United States have promoted a wave of renovations of their headquarters in recent years, with many of the projects facing problems and polemics, particularly given the rise in costs compared to the estimated.
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22/08/2026
by
Lusa
ANDm Portugal, the decision of a new building for Banco de Portugal by Mário Centeno provoked controversy, not only because it occurred near the end of the mandate of the then governor, but also due to doubts about possible costs.
In May 2025, the BdP announced that it signed a contract with Fidelidade to acquire a building in Lisbon (in the old Feira Popular, in Entrecampos) for future facilities of the institution, for 192 million euros, but a report from the Observer that the value would be higher gave rise to a political controversy and the Government said it would request an audit.
This year, the successor Álvaro Santos Pereira decided to change the project, from two buildings to one, a change that will cost less than 35 million to 40 million euros in relation to the previous solution, having agreed to purchase for 165 million, said at a hearing.
In the US, the renewal of the headquarters decided by Jerome Powell was the subject of criticism by President Donald Trump and eventually led to an investigation, which the then governor said was an institutional pressure and retaliation.
Research focused on the reform of a building, estimated at USD 2.5 billion (EUR 2.14 billion). Trump visited the building and, before journalists, presented Powell with an inflated cost estimate, a value that the person responsible refuted and corrected.
The investigation, after several of the Department of Justice against Trump's opponents, was with the inquiry without advancing for months, because prosecutors had difficulty supporting suspicions of criminal conduct.
A prosecutor in charge of the Powell case admitted, in a closed hearing, that the government had not found any evidence of crime and subsequently, a judge annulled the subpoenas issued against the Fed.
In Germany, the refurbishment project also raised problems and eventually fell. The building which served as the seat of the Bundesbank will become the new seat of the European School of Frankfurt, attended mainly by the children of officials of the European Central Bank.
Last week, the Bundesbank announced that it is looking for a new building for its headquarters in Frankfurt and advanced with a European public tender.
The headquarters of the Bundesbank, which houses more than half of Germany's gold reserves, is a brutalist-style building built between 1967 and 1972. The building, symbol of the culture of stability, was listed as a historic monument in May 2022.
In Hungary, in 2025, the central bank filed a complaint with the police about the renovations of the headquarters, alleging suspicion of fraud, negligence and other irregularities that the institution says caused financial losses.
In March 2025, the Hungarian State Audit Office published a report on the central bank’s real estate investments, valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, under the management of then governor Gyorgy Matolcsy. On that occasion, the Office considered that these investments lacked adequate control and supervision.
Governor Mihaly Varga presented the External Audit Service report, based on the findings of an independent investigation requested by the bank's supervisory board, which concluded that the budget almost doubled, while the number of employees the building could accommodate fell by half.
The costs of the project thus rose to 81 billion Hungarian forints (about EUR 222 million).
Already, in the Netherlands the Dutch central bank’s headquarters have been renovated smoothly, for some EUR 320 million and in five years. De Nederlandsche Bank reopened its headquarters at Frederiksplein in Amsterdam on January 6, 2025, with space for about 2,500 employees.