Settled and outstanding purchases under CBPP3 increased Eu591m on the back of three days of secondary market purchases last week, and some analysts said the pace of buying is in line with the Eurosystem’s focus remaining on primary.

European Central Bank figures released yesterday (Monday) afternoon show that the portfolio for its third covered bond purchase programme grew Eu591m to Eu143.931bn in the week to last Friday.

This figure relates to only three trading days, because buying under the asset purchase programme (APP) resumed on Monday of last week (4 January) after being suspended over the holiday period and given that the ECB reports only purchases settled by the reporting date.

With no primary market deals settling last week and assuming no redemptions, the ECB bought on average Eu197m per day on the secondary market. Analysts said the pace of secondary buying was therefore well below the average of around Eu365m per day since the programme started but roughly in line with purchases in the final weeks of 2015, when primary purchases overtook secondary.

“Although the latest report covers only three business days it continues the trend of Eurosystem focusing its covered bond purchases more to the primary market,” said Jussi Harju, covered bond analyst at Barclays.

The public sector purchase programme (PSPP) portfolio increased Eu8.687bn to Eu499.902bn in the week to last Friday. Analysts said the ECB therefore bought on average Eu2.896bn per day last week, compared with a long term average for the programme of Eu2.45bn.