Exchange-traded fund sponsors are looking at socially responsible investing as a new growth area, reports the WSJ Fund Track. Pax World is planning three environmental ETFs while Veritas Funds has registered a christian investing-focused ETFs with the SEC (those funds come in Baptist, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and nondenominational evengelical styles, according to the report). Meanwhile, Javelin Investment Management (Princeton, New Jersey), will launch a fund that follows Islamic dictates.

The paper points out that these will not be the first ETFs in the sector. Powershares is the most succesful, having gathered $630 million in its WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio that launched in 2005.

Last year Claymore Securities shut down Claymore/KLD Sudan Free Large-Cap Core ETF and Claymore/LGA Green ETF after those funds failed to gather sufficient interest.  

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