BRUSSELS (Reuters), – As part of the sanctions on Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, the European Union expelled seven Russian banks form the SWIFT messaging network that supports global transactions.

Russia’s largest banks VTB will be allowed to close down SWIFT operations for 10 days. They are alongside Bank Otrkitie and Novikombank as well as Bank Rossiya, Bank Rossiya and Sovcombank.

Unofficial EU representative explained that its banks were picked based on connections with Russia. This is because public banks have been subject to sanctions since Russia’s 2014 annexation and annexation Crimea.

“All the banks listed under SWIFT… are all linked to the government and have an implicit connection with the war effort. The official stated that we haven’t imposed a ban on all banks.

Gazprombank and Sberbank (Russia’s biggest lender) were not included on the list as they serve as the primary channels for Russian oil and natural gas payments. EU countries continue to buy Russian oil and gasoline despite conflict.

An EU official stated that it wasn’t possible to simply allow transactions relating to energy and exempt others, as SWIFT couldn’t differentiate between different types of payments. These two banks are still subject to additional measures, the official said.

While the European Union and United States as well as Canada, moved to stop certain Russian banks being able to access SWIFT on Saturday, it did not indicate which ones.

SWIFT is home to more than 11,000 users and no obvious global competitor. China is now part of the SWIFT network, but it’s still very small. Officials from EU said that despite Russia having a similar system, SWIFT was used to transfer 70% of Russian funds.

Banks could, however, still perform transfers by using alternative methods such as faxes, or bi-directional messaging systems, if these existed.