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My brief thoughts on their funds family
Posted 16 August 2026
I devoted my February 2026 column in the magazine "Islamic Finance News" to looking at a group of Shariah compliant exchange traded funds ("ETFs") from a firm called SP Funds.
It gave me the opportunity to remind readers what they should look at when selecting an ETF, and even more importantly what they should not look at!
At a Muslim conference late last year, I met Naushad Virji, CEO of SP Funds. They are a Shariah compliant investment house based in Florida. I made a diary note to take a closer look at their Shariah compliant ETFs, and have now found the time to do so.
From the information on their website, www.sp-funds.com, I have compiled the table below, focusing on the data that I regard as most relevant when looking at an ETF.
Ticker |
Index tracked |
Expense ratio |
Net assets USD million |
Premium / Discount |
Median 30 Day Spread |
SPUS |
S&P 500 Shariah Industry Exclusions Index |
0.45% |
1,998 |
0.01% |
0.02% |
SPSK |
Dow Jones Sukuk Total Return Index |
0.55% |
462 |
0.07% |
0.05% |
SPRE |
S&P Global All Equity REIT Shariah Capped Index |
0.55% |
192 |
0.35% |
0.30% |
SPWO |
S&P DM Ex-U.S. & EM 50/50 Shariah Index |
0.55% |
113 |
0.34% |
0.14% |
SPTE |
S&P Global 1200 Shariah Information Technology Index |
0.55% |
97 |
0.41% |
0.38% |
Source: Compiled by author from data on company website
When looking at any information, as well as looking at what is there, it is vital to always think about what is absent. (People are far more likely to mislead you by omitting information, rather than by providing false information.)
The table deliberately excludes any information about historic performance. As I wrote in my 3 April 2024 column "Some thoughts on Shariah compliant equity investing in the USA":
“Finally, I have deliberately said nothing about the historic performance of these investment funds. Historic performance is a really poor way of selecting investment funds, even though most investors are guilty of making investment decisions on that basis.”
That applies even more strongly with tracking ETFs than it does with actively managed funds. The key questions with a tracking ETF are:
SPUS actually received a mention in the above article, when its net assets were US$ 460 million, compared with the USD$ 1,998 million that they are now.
These ETFs are of course tiny compared with comparable conventional ETFs, reflecting the much smaller universe of potential investors in them. In turn, that smallness causes them to be much more expensive in terms of their expense ratio.
The largest ETF above, SPUS, trades with a very narrow bid/offer spread, and with a market price that is close to net asset value. The second largest, SPSK, does almost as well. However, the others are much smaller, and therefore less liquid leading to wider spreads and a higher divergence from net asset value.
They illustrate a point that comes up regularly.
Islamic financial products are almost always more expensive than their conventional equivalents, because they are more complex to provide (since you have to check, and certify, Shariah compliance) and they serve a much smaller marketplace.
Mohammed Amin is an Islamic finance consultant and former tax partner at PwC in the UK.
