The CBPP3 portfolio increased a modest €241m in the first week of January, but gross secondary market purchases averaged a respectable €205m per day, given that the week only corresponded with three trading days.

According to data released by the European Central Bank on Monday relating to settled and outstanding purchases under its various programmes, the CBPP3 portfolio grew €241m in the week to last Friday, from €287.545bn to €287.759bn.

Given there were around €400m of CBPP3 redemptions – the first recorded in over a month – gross purchases amounted to €614m, the highest weekly gross purchases since the week ending 4 December.

No CBPP3-eligible supply settled for the sixth consecutive week, meaning all purchases were conducted in the secondary market. As the programme was suspended until Monday (4 January) of last week for the usual fortnight’s seasonal break, only purchases conducted on three days (Monday to Wednesday) will have contributed to last week’s figures, while Wednesday was also a public holiday in some parts of Europe.

This means average daily secondary purchases were around €205m – higher than the €180m average across the life of the programme.

Any Eurosystem buying of a Aareal Bank €500m seven year mortgage Pfandbrief that reopened the market on Tuesday of last week and settled yesterday (Tuesday) will be included in next Monday’s CBPP3 figures – central banks and official institutions were allocated 29% of the German deal.