U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order authorizing the imposition of sanctions on financial institutions facilitating significant supplies in favor of the Russian military industry, the White House has reported.

"The Secretary of the Treasury... in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Commerce, is hereby authorized to impose on a foreign financial institution the sanctions... upon determining that the foreign financial institution has conducted or facilitated any significant transaction or transactions in the technology, defense and related materiel, construction, aerospace, or manufacturing sectors of the Russian Federation economy, or other such sectors as may be determined to support Russia's military-industrial base," the statement said.

Sanctions are also possible for facilitating the delivery of products or services for the Russian military industry, the order says.

"We expect financial institutions will undertake every effort to ensure that they are not witting or unwitting facilitators of circumvention and evasion… And we will not hesitate to use the new tools provided by this authority to take decisive, and surgical, action against financial institutions that facilitate the supply of Russia's war machine," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement announcing the order.