VIENNA (Reuters] -The European bank of Sberbank in Russia, Russia’s most important lender, was closed today by the European Central Bank. The European Central Bank had earlier warned of its imminent failure because of a ran on deposits that erupted after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Sberbank Europe, a bank based in Vienna was declared failing by the Single Resolution Board (SRB), of the European Central Bank. The Austrian FMA imposed a moratorium Monday on bank activities.

An hour and a half before the expiration of that moratorium, FMA made an announcement that it had ordered the bank to close.

The Austrian Financial Market Authority, (FMA), announced that the European Central Bank (ECB) had issued a ban on the license credit institution ‘Sberbank Europe AG…from continuing its business operations in full with immediate effect.”

As a result of Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, both the United States of America and the European Union have reacted with a series of sanctions. They include imposing bans on large Russian banks using SWIFT as their main global payment system.

Sberbank Europe announced Monday that its banks experienced “a substantial outflow of customers deposits in a very short time period”.

SRB placed a moratorium in order to determine if the case should be dealt with under European bank resolution rules. The FMA stated that the SRB did not decide it should.

FMA announced that an administrator has been appointed by the FMA to decide when and if an insolvency is possible. According to the FMA, Austria’s deposit protection scheme covers customer deposits upto 100,000 euro (or $1111,240).

Separately it was announced, that Sberbank Europe’s Balkans unit 2 would be purchased.

Andrej Palenkovic, Croatian Prime Minister, said Twitter (NYSE:), that Hrvatska Postanska Bank would acquire Sberbank in Croatia. However, Slovenia’s central banking stated in a statement the NLB largest bank group would assume Sberbank’s Slovenian operation.

($1 = 0.8990 euros)