Prime Minister of Spain Mariano Rajoy (World Economic Forum/Flickr)

While the exact amount of assistance has not been set, five senior EU and German officials said "deputy finance ministers from the single currency area would hold a conference call on Saturday morning” to discuss Spain’s request.

The Eurogroup, comprised of the euro zone’s 17 finance ministers, will hold a separate call to determine whether they should approve the request.

“The government of Spain has realized the seriousness of their problem,” said a senior German official.

According to Reuters, this development has followed quickly after a three notch cut, down to BBB, to Madrid’s sovereign credit rating by Fitch Ratings on Thursday, “highlighting the Spanish banking sector's exposure to bad property loans and to contagion from Greece's debt crisis.”

Spain is the world’s 12th largest economy and ranked four in the euro zone. Yet, the “cost to the Spanish state of recapitalizing banks stricken by the bursting of a real estate bubble, recession and mass unemployment could be between 60-100 billion euros ($75-$125 billion) - or 6 to 9 percent of Spain's gross domestic product. The higher figure would be in a stress scenario equivalent to Ireland's bank crash.”

Reuters reports:

“The European Commission's spokesman on economic affairs said Spain had made no request for aid but the euro zone stood ready to help.

‘If such a request were to be made, the instruments are there, ready to be used, in agreement with the guidelines agreed in the past,’ Amadeu Altafaj said. ‘We are not at that point.’

European Central Bank Vice President Vitor Constancio said the call for assistance was expected soon.

‘It is expected that Spain will formulate a request for aid exclusively for banks recapitalization ... there has to be an expression of will to have such a program for Spanish banks, and one may hope it happens rather swiftly,’ Constancio said on Portuguese radio.”

See more of Neon Tommy’s ongoing coverage on Spain here.

Reach Executive Producer Subrina Hudson here; follow her here.