(Reuters) – Investors who have depositary receipts from Russia’s top sanctioned banks face difficulties when converting them to shares, analysts and sources told Reuters. This is after sanctions were imposed by the European Union on Russia’s National Clearing House.

Russia’s National Settlement Depository was disapproved last Friday. This thwarted Moscow’s plans to use the NSD to service its Eurobonds. Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury banned U.S. money manager from purchasing any Russian stock in secondary markets on Tuesday.

This has made it more difficult for Russian businesses, such as the dominant lender Sberbank or No. VTB bank VTB have both been removed from SWIFT Global Payments System due to Moscow’s actions in Ukraine. Both have London-listed depositary receipts.

The certificates that are called depositary receipts represent shares in companies outside of the country where they are traded. These allow foreign investors to trade overseas stocks.

In April, President Vladimir Putin signed an act requiring Russian companies not to list their depositary receipts in order to lessen the power foreign countries have over them. However, 15 other companies were allowed to stay listed.

Following the crash in Russian prices, which occurred on February 24, after Moscow launched its “special military operations” in Ukraine, London Stock Exchange suspended trading in Russian receipts.

With the increase in sanctions, there are no more options for converting them to shares. However, NSD restrictions have been a constant annoyance.

According to VTB’s My Investments broker, “If depository bank consider interactions with the NSD violating EU sanctions,” then it would be technically impossible for anyone to convert their depositary receipts,” he said.

Ivan Dubinin, Finam’s investment consultant, stated that receipts are usually about 25% of share capital. But, it’s difficult to accurately estimate at the moment.

Russian authorities ordered Russian banks not to release classified financial data or reports.

Dubinin claimed that although many foreign investors have exited rapidly after Russia’s “special military operation in Ukraine,” many more remain, with no hope of escaping.

Dubinin explained that holders who are not residents of the country cannot sell their deposits. He also said that there is no alternative for Russians who have been served by foreign brokerages.

The programme of Sberbank will end on June 16th, with VTB following suit in Sept. 1.

VTB sources told Reuters that VTB would allow the program to “peter out by itself”.

Sberbank did not comment on NSD sanctions’ impact, however, a source from Sberbank told Reuters that there were problems in converted receipts in clearinghouses in Europe and America.

Source said that “a lot of orders to convert such receipts don’t get fulfilled by foreign brokerages because they refuse to transact with securities of companies listed on (United States’) SDN List.”