In its policy, the European Union intervenes when necessary to prevent conflicts or in response to emerging or real crises. In certain cases, EU intervention may take the form of restrictive measures or 'sanctions'. The application of financial sanctions and, more precisely, the freezing of assets constitutes an obligation for the public and private sectors. In this sense, a particular responsibility falls on financial and credit institutions, since they are involved in most financial transfers. To facilitate the application of financial sanctions, the European Banking Federation, the European Savings Banks Group, the European Association of Cooperative Banks, the European Association of Public Banks ("EU Credit Sector Federations") and the European Commission have recognized the need for a consolidated EU list of individuals, groups and entities subject to financial sanctions and, more precisely, the freezing of assets. The Credit Sector Federations created an initial database containing the consolidated list. The European Commission subsequently took over this database and is responsible for its maintenance and for keeping the consolidated sanctions list up to date. In this regard, the European Commission's External Policy Instrument (FPI) Service launched a new web page in June 2017, where the consolidated lists of financial sanctions consisting of asset freezes are published in different formats (see link below). Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure that the database and consolidated list correctly reproduce all relevant data from the officially adopted texts published in the Official Journal of the European Union, neither the Commission nor the EU Credit Sector Federations accept any responsibility for possible omissions of data or relevant errors, nor for any use of the database or consolidated list. Only the information published in the Official Journal of the EU is considered authentic.