Karin Strohecker, Huw Jones

LONDON, (Reuters) –SWIFT stated Tuesday that it is waiting for information from banks to determine if they want to be disconnected by its global financial messaging network as part of sanctions in reaction to Russia’s invasion Ukraine.

European Union, Canada (USA), France, Germany Italy, Canada, Canada, and Britain all agreed Saturday that certain Russian banks would be removed from SWIFT in an effort to limit their ability to work globally.

SWIFT stated Tuesday that it will comply with all applicable sanctions laws.

“We have been in contact with authorities to find out which entities will fall under these new measures. Once we get legal direction, we will immediately disconnect them.”

SWIFT, a Belgian bank system that supports trillions in annual payments to support international commerce, is used by banks to transmit millions of orders daily to SWIFT.

The Council of EU countries, expected to publish the list of banks that were affected by this decision, could not comment right away.

To stop Russian firms raising money on foreign markets, the world’s financial system has severed all ties to Russia and its banks.

Euroclear, a European-based securities settlement company, stated Tuesday that it would no longer accept the rouble to settle its transactions and was closing down its account at ING Bank Moscow.

Tradeweb, a trading platform for securities, announced that it had suspended trading of Russian sanctions-affected securities.

Bloomberg, according to market sources had reported that it flagged Russian sovereign bond and other securities related to Russian banks VTB/Sberbank. However, trading continued as normal despite the warning label that stated “sanctions applied to this security”.

After sanctions, the London Stock Exchange announced Tuesday that it would stop trading in GDRs for Russia’s VTB Bank.

However, Sberbank and Gazprom LSE listings (MCXX:) were trading as usual and fell sharply during the day.

Saxo Bank of Denmark said that trading pairs between the Russian rouble and other currencies, such as the euro or dollar had been halted.

Deutsche Boerse in Frankfurt and ICE in New York announced Monday that they would not allow Russian traders to trade.

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