Frankfurt’s former vegetable wholesale market – a cavernous, 1920s red-brick hall on the city’s eastern fringe – is embarking on a transformation. If all goes to plan, the building that emerges in a few years will be a landmark that raises Frankfurt’s profile as home of the European Central Bank.

The ECB’s new headquarters could be seen as a physical manifestation of something that has become increasingly evident since the global financial market crisis erupted almost two years ago: the central bank’s growing importance to the city’s future as an international financial centre.