The SPV itself acts as an affiliate of a parent corporation, which sells assets off of its own balance sheet to the SPV. The SPV becomes an indirect source of financing for the original corporation by attracting independent equity investors to help purchase debt obligations. This is most useful for large credit risk items, such as subprime mortgage loans. Not all SPVs are structured the same way. In the United States, SPVs are often limited liability corporations (LLCs). Once the LLC purchases the risky assets from its parent company, it normally groups the assets into tranches and sells them to meet the specific credit risk preferences of different types of investors.