The ECB registered a week-on-week fall in CBPP3 purchases last week in line with a fall in primary settlements to their lowest level of the year so far. Around EUR700m of the EUR909m of gross purchases are estimated to have been bought on the secondary market.

European Central Bank figures released on Monday show that in the week to last Friday settled and outstanding purchases under the third covered bond purchase programme increased EUR709m, from EUR246.064bn to EUR246.773bn. Figures released yesterday (Tuesday) show that around EUR200m of CBPP3 holdings matured last week, implying gross purchases of around EUR909m.

This is down from gross purchases of around EUR1.756bn in the previous week and closer to the 2017 average of EUR1.1bn per week.

One CBPP3-eligible benchmark issue settled last week, a EUR500m deal for Germany’s apoBank, of which analysts estimate the Eurosystem bought just over EUR200m. These are the lowest estimated primary purchases in a single week since the start of the year and are well below analysts’ estimates of EUR900m-EUR1.2bn of primary market buying in the previous week.

Analysts therefore calculate that secondary market purchases averaged around EUR141m per day last week, compared to estimates ranging from EUR111m to EUR171m per day in the previous week.

Analysts noted that after the Eurosystem’s focus was squarely on primary market purchases at the start of the year, the share of secondary market buying has increased.

“Ever wondered why covered bond markets have been so calm recently?” said Florian Eichert, head of covered bond and SSA research at Crédit Agricole. “This was most certainly one of the reasons in our view.”