(Reuters) – Russian brokerages are afraid of being target by Western sanctions. They have stopped Sberbank from hosting clients’ accounts that contain foreign stock holdings.

Last week, the United States placed full blocking sanctions against Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank as well as its top private bank Alfa Bank. This was in response to Russia calling for “a special military operation” in Ukraine.

U.S. Treasury set April 12, 2012 and May 5 as the deadlines for terminating transactions with Sberbank or Alfa Bank. According to the banks, penalties will not affect their business operations in any significant way.

Since the introduction of COVID-19, Russia has seen a surge in private stock market investments. The number of Russian citizens who have brokerage accounts grew to 17 million last year as they sought out ways of making money in the face of low deposit rates and record domestic share flotillas.

Sberbank VTB and Alfa Bank were Russia’s top banks before the recent sanctions. This meant that their clients could still hold foreign stocks but had to place their money in smaller local institutions.

Sberbank had to make a decision on the transfer of accounts to foreign stocks before Tuesday’s end. It advised its customers to get in touch with the bank regarding the matter.

Sberbank announced on its website that “We have taken appropriate action to ensure you can manage assets without restraints” without specifying where accounts were moved.

Most Russian brokerages that are not under Western sanctions have stated that they do not take trading accounts with foreign stock from Sberbank. The market and its clients remain in suspense about what this means.

“The market environment is exceptional. The market situation is unique.

Sberbank didn’t disclose the name or brokerage it was negotiating to with, and did not respond to Reuters’s request for comment.

According to Reuters, another representative from a Moscow-based brokerage said that “Noone wants to see a huge inflow (of client), primarily because of sanctions.”

After receiving clients from VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank and one of the most severe Western sanctions this year, fears over possible sanctions increased.

Another source from a Russian brokerage stated that banks sanctioned by the law were not open to dealing with companies “after” the Alfa case.

According to a source, banks are trying to move their clients to unlicensed brokerage firms without infrastructure.

According to media reports, Sberbank was rumored to have considered transferring clientele to Aton or BCS brokerages at one point. Quickly, the two companies issued statements disclaiming that they weren’t involved in the transaction.

Finam brokerage, Tinkoff Bank Rosselkhozbank Freedom Finance claimed that Alfa Bank and Sberbank did not ask them for their brokerage accounts.

Gazprombank under UK sanctions was hit harder than Otkritie Bank. Reuters didn’t respond to a request.

Alfa Bank stated to Reuters that they were looking for a brokerage which would access its clients’ accounts, so that their trading can be continued freely. But, a decision about what kind of firm that can does that is yet to be made.