A clear majority of delegates at a Fitch Rating Viking Tour 2015 expect the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing programme to be the driver of European credit market performance this year, the rating agency found.

Having announced the third covered bond purchase programme (CBPP3) at its last press conference, at the beginning of September, the European Central Bank last Thursday (2 October) followed up with the technical details of CBPP3 — which didn’t disappoint our expectations as the eligibility criteria are very wide.

The ECB buys covered bonds — again. It’s like changing your password on your computer. You leave the letters identical and increase the number at the end by one to keep it simple — in this case, to 3.

The European Central Bank (ECB) announced a new covered bond purchase programme (CBPP) to be launched alongside a first ABS purchase programme in October this (Thursday) afternoon — the latter move having been anticipated, although covered bonds had not been in focus.

Crédit Agricole covered bond analysts weigh the covered bond implications of extraordinary measures announced by the European Central Bank for covered bonds. The market will remain a seller’s market, but the impact on issuance volumes will not be as dramatic as some might expect, they say.

“Squeeze-time” is probably the “it” word of the covered bond world so far in 2013. Issuance has remained subdued, with overall euro benchmark covered bond volumes having just moved above EUR50bn, while redemption volumes have been significantly higher, coming in at EUR85bn in the first five months of the year.