FRANKFURT (Standard&Poor's) Aug. 22, 2012--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that the sovereign ratings on the Kingdom of Spain (BBB+/Negative/A-2) would likely not be directly affected should Spain's government request a bailout through official financing by the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF, AA+/Negative/A-1+), the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), or the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Spain has already requested, and been granted, support of up to €100 billion for the Spanish banking system (see "Bulletin: Ratings On Spain Unaffected By The Announced Bank Bailout," published June 11, 2012, on RatingsDirect on the Global Credit Portal). We note that so far Spain's government has not decided to request a full bailout, despite growing expectations that it could do so
