For ABS, the legal obligation to repay the bondholders often lies with the special legal entity that was created by the financial institution in charge of the securitization process. The financial institution is known as the sponsor or originator. The special legal entity is most frequently referred to as a special purpose entity (SPE) in the United States and a special purpose vehicle (SPV) in Europe, and it is also sometimes called a special purpose company (SPC). The legal form for the special legal entity may be a limited partnership, a limited liability company, or a trust. Typically, special legal entities are thinly capitalized, have no independent management or employees, and have no purpose other than the transactions for which they were created.