XLF

Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund

HARAM — SCREEN DOES NOT PASSetf

Is XLF Halal?

Financial sector ETF — banks and insurance companies are impermissible.

What You Should Know

State Street's March 31, 2026 report shows XLF concentrated in banks, financial services, capital markets, insurance and consumer finance, with $48.282 billion of total assets. The sector's conventional interest-based activity makes the qualitative and overall screens fail even though fund-level balance-sheet ratios are low.

⚠️ Concerns

  • Banks earn interest (riba)
  • Insurance involves gharar
  • Capital markets and consumer finance exposure
  • Full financial-sector exposure

Current quantitative Sharia screen

Based on Semiannual Shareholder Report figures for the period ended 2026-03-31; calculated 2026-07-14.

USD · millions
Interest-bearing debt / assets
0.00%Within limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

0 / 48,282.129

Cash + interest-bearing securities / assets
0.77%Within limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

370.131 / 48,282.129

Receivables + cash / assets
1.66%Within limit
Below 50% under FTSE Yasaar

802.745 / 48,282.129

Non-compliant income / revenue
0.06%Within limit
No more than 5% under FTSE Yasaar

0.283 / 455.661

FTSE Yasaar
v4.6, February 2026
Financial
Pass
Overall
Fails

Fund-level debt/assets is 0.00%, liquidity/assets is 0.77%, receivables-plus-cash/assets is 1.66% and disclosed incidental non-compliant income is 0.06%; the core financial-sector activity fails qualitatively.

MSCI Islamic (total-assets series)
October 2024 methodology
Financial
Pass
Overall
Fails

Fund-level debt, liquidity and receivables-plus-cash are below examined MSCI limits, but the fund is concentrated in conventional financial institutions.

Malaysia SAC financial ratios
single 5% activity benchmark adopted November 2025
Financial
Pass
Overall
Fails

Fund-level financial ratios are below the examined Malaysia limits, but the core financial-sector activity is not permissible under the qualitative screen.

Market-cap denominator methods
MSCI M-Series, S&P and Dow Jones methods differ
Financial
Not calculated
Overall
Fails

Market-cap methods are not used for this fund-level sector screen; core activity already fails qualitatively.

Business-activity disclosure

XLF is designed to provide direct exposure to banks, financial services, capital markets, insurance and consumer finance companies; conventional interest-based financial activity is the fund's defining sector exposure.

Limitation: The report provides fund-level holdings and income, but not a universal prohibited-revenue allocation for every underlying financial institution; the conservative upper-bound input is used for the fund-level display.

Purification

Small fund-level interest and securities-lending income does not cure the fund's core exposure to conventional banks, insurers and finance companies.

Inputs, assumptions and primary sources
  • Amounts are USD millions converted from XLF's unaudited March 31, 2026 semiannual statements.
  • XLF reports $48,256.702059 million of investments, including $365.957369 million of affiliated investments, $4.173723 million of net cash at broker, $798.571312 million of dividend and securities-lending receivables and $48,282.128644 million of total assets.
  • Six-month investment income totals $455.661443 million, including $50,844 of interest and $231,910 of securities-lending income; the conservative prohibited-revenue input treats the fund's pass-through financial-sector income as non-compliant core exposure rather than claiming issuer-level revenue precision.
  • The fund's holdings are concentrated in banks, financial services, capital markets, insurance and consumer finance; a fund-level dividend denominator is not a substitute for issuer-level revenue analysis.

This is a reproducible financial screen, not a fatwa. A failed total-assets screen can coexist with a pass under a market-cap methodology. ZakatInvest keeps the qualitative assessment separate so numerical thresholds do not erase material context.

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