CBPP3 outstandings increased Eu2.303bn last week, with analysts noting that, despite an increase in the rate of purchases on the back of a busier primary market, the Eurosystem has not stepped up buying as some had expected after front-loading comments from a key ECB official.

Monday’s figure showed that total purchases settled and outstanding under the third covered bond purchase programme as of Friday had risen to Eu85.108bn, from Eu82.805bn a week earlier.

Although the increase was larger than a Eu2.046bn rise the previous week, ending a run of three consecutive weeks in which the rate of purchases appeared to have fallen, analysts said CBPP3 purchases do not appear to have been stepped up.

This, they noted, was despite ECB executive board member Benoît Cœuré stating in a speech on 19 May that purchases under the overall expanded asset purchase programme (EAPP) would be front-loaded ahead of an expected lull in market activity in the summer.

In particular, analysts saw the pace of secondary market purchases as having slightly slowed or as remained at around the same level as the previous week.

Three CBPP3-eligilble deals settled last week – Eu250m sub-benchmark issues from Kreissparkasse Köln and Ålandsbanken, and a Eu500m tap of a NordLB issue – with supply totalling Eu1bn.

Analysts’ estimates of the Eurosystem’s total take of these ranged from Eu250m and Eu360m. Based on their having been four working days in the corresponding period, this puts the pace of daily secondary purchases at between Eu486m and Eu513m.

“The bottom line for this week is that there is a slight increase in the overall total thanks to some primary market activity, but secondary settlement volumes remain well below the roughly Eu500m daily average throughout the programme,” said Florian Eichert, head of covered bond and SSA research at Crédit Agricole.

Meanwhile, the pace of PSPP buying increased, with the portfolio increasing Eu12.455bn last week – compared with Eu11.819bn the previous week – taking the total to Eu146.679bn.

“The increase in pace of purchases is in line with the communication from the ECB that it will start front-loading its purchases before the summer break,” said Jussi Harju, covered bond analyst at Barclays.

The ECB also published its monthly breakdown of CBPP3 purchases yesterday, reporting that as of 31 May Eu15.053bn (equivalent to 17.69% of purchases) had been bought on the primary market while Eu70.055bn (82.31%) had been purchased on the secondary.