The expression structured finance refers in a broad and sometimes nebulous way to the finance sector that was created to help provide greater liquidity or sources of financing to markets such as real estate, as well as to transfer risk. The transfer of liquidity and risk is achieved in structured finance through the securitization of various financial assets (for example, a mortgage, debts associated with a credit card or a loan for the purchase of a car), which has contributed to opening up new sources of financing for consumers and entrepreneurs. A common example of instruments created through structuring are collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and asset-backed securities (ABS). The legal structure of these instruments can be very simple, or enormously complex.