The European Central Bank disclosed this (Friday) morning that settled purchases under its second covered bond purchase programme had increased Eu435m, the largest jump in a month, coinciding with the closing of two Spanish new issues and one French.

Buying under the programme now totals Eu6.28bn.

From 18-20 January the ECB reported increases of Eu704m, Eu558m, then Eu299m, but since then reported purchases have been below Eu100m every day but one.

Today’s increase will have captured any buying under CBPP2 of three covered bonds that settled yesterday, a BPCE Eu1.25bn five year and a Banco Sabadell Eu1.2bn three year launched on 6 February, as well as a CaixaBank Eu1bn five year launched on 8 February.

Central banks were reported to have bought – although not necessarily under CBPP2 – 14% (Eu175m) of BPCE’s deal, 23% (Eu276m) of Banco Sabadell’s, and 17% of CaixaBank’s (Eu170m), for an aggregate amount of Eu615m.

“We know the ECB could only have bought Eu435m for CBPP2 of the total possible Eu615m taken down by central banks,” said Michael Michaelides, covered bond analyst at RBS. “But if it bought Eu435m, then that means all it bought was in the primary, but we don’t know that.”

Michaelides noted that based on a theoretical approximate Eu160m the ECB needs to buy every day to reach its Eu40bn target by the time the programme ends in October, it is Eu5.72bn behind a target path.

“It should have bought Eu12bn by now, in theory,” he said.

CBPP2 eligible benchmarks yet to settle comprise: a Banesto Eu500m four year and a Santander Eu2bn three year that settle today, and a Compagnie de Financement Foncier Eu2bn three year next Tuesday.