CBPP3 registered a fall in purchases last week, with gross buying of some Eu861m the lowest weekly amount since the end of May, after eligible issuance dried up. Secondary purchases increased, however, to their highest level since mid-April.

ECB figures released on Monday afternoon show that in the week to last Friday, the CBPP3 portfolio grew Eu416m, from Eu222.630bn to Eu223.046bn. Portfolio redemption figures released yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon show that around Eu400m of CBPP3 holdings matured last week. Gross purchases therefore amounted to around Eu816m last week.

This is down from gross purchases of around Eu1.153bn in the previous week and below the average of some Eu1.050bn the programme has tended towards over the last three months.

Analysts attributed this fall in purchases to the lack of any CBPP3-eligible issuance settling last week. Secondary market purchases therefore averaged Eu163m per day, the highest since the week ending 21 April.

“This is a noticeable increase compared to the Eu100m the week before,” said Florian Eichert, head of covered bond and SSA research at Crédit Agricole, “and goes to show once more that the Eurosystem is happy to rely on new issues if there are some but buys slightly more in secondary markets if primary markets are quiet.”