We raised our ratings on Spain to 'BBB' from 'BBB-' on May 23, 2014. Under our criteria, core operating entities of the Spain-based insurance group Mapfre can be rated up to three notches above Spain. This reflects our view of Mapfre's ability to withstand a hypothetical Spanish sovereign default, and its moderate-to-high sensitivity to country risk. We are therefore raising our ratings on Mapfre's core subsidiaries to 'A' from 'A-', in line with the group indicative credit profile. We are also raising our ratings on the group's holding company Mapfre S.A. to 'BBB+' from 'BBB'. The stable outlook reflects that on Spain and our expectation that Mapfre will maintain its strong business and financial risk profiles in the next two
