CBPP3 registered a marginal fall in gross purchases last week, but – with Eu1.457bn of covered bonds bought – the rate of buying nevertheless remained well above the 2017 average, while the share of primary and secondary market purchases remained steady.

ECB figures released on Monday show the CBPP3 portfolio grew from Eu231.314bn to Eu232.771bn in the week to last Friday. Redemption figures released yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon show that no CBPP3 holdings matured last week.

Gross purchases were therefore almost in line with purchases of around Eu1.511bn in the previous week and well above the 2017 average of around Eu1.130bn per week.

Analysts estimated that around Eu600m of last week’s CBPP3 purchases were made on the primary market, implying that secondary market purchases averaged around Eu171m per day, compared with around Eu182m-Eu202m in the previous week.