NBG taps peripheral buzz and yield hunger to go long

National Bank of Greece bucked the typical route taken by peripheral banks with renewed access to the capital markets, starting with a covered bond or short maturity senior unsecured, to mark its return with a five year senior bond that it printed though the level that the Greek sovereign was trading. It's a deal that has market participants both trumpeting the peripheral recovery story and wondering: to what extent yield hunger is distorting decisions?