The CBPP3 portfolio grew Eu2.229bn in the week to last Friday, a slight decrease on the previous week’s Eu2.365bn, with analysts putting this down to a fall in secondary market purchases.

According to figures released by the European Central Bank yesterday (Monday) afternoon, settled and outstanding purchases under the third covered bond purchase programme increased from Eu152.902bn to Eu155.131bn.

Four euro benchmarks totalling Eu4.5bn settled during the relevant five days and analysts estimated the Eurosystem bought some Eu1.3bn-Eu1.4bn of these. Assuming no maturities, this implies average daily secondary market purchases of around Eu175m, down from some Eu210m in the previous reporting period.

“Overall, the ECB continued its slower pace compared to the first 12 months of CBPP3, with recent fluctuations also due to primary market issuance,” said a covered bond analyst.