LONDON, England - January 16, 2012 - The European Financial Stability Facility lost its top credit rating at Standard & Poor’s after the rating company downgraded France and Austria.

The rating was lowered to AA+ from AAA, S&P said in a statement today. It removed the ratings on the facility from CreditWatch with negative implications. S&P had said on Dec. 6 that the loss of an AAA rating by any one of the EFSF’s guarantor nations could lead to the facility being downgraded.

“The EFSF’s obligations are no longer fully supported either by guarantees from EFSF members rated AAA by S&P, or by AAA rated securities,” the company said. “Credit enhancements sufficient to offset what we view as the reduced creditworthiness of guarantors are currently not in place.”

The EFSF, which is designed to fund rescue packages for Greece, Ireland and Portugal partially with bond sales, owed its AAA rating to guarantees from its sponsoring nations. Two of those sovereigns, France and Austria, were cut on Jan. 13 to AA+ from AAA by S&P, which also downgraded seven other euro-region countries.