Sarwa

Sarwa prices its three products separately. Sarwa Trade charges the greater of USD 1 or 0.25% of the order amount on US stocks and ETFs, and its pricing page says no spread is added on stock and ETF trades. Because the percentage has no cap, the commission grows with the order: USD 1 on a USD 400 order, USD 5 on USD 2,000 and USD 25 on USD 10,000. Options cost USD 4 per contract to buy or sell, and exercising a contract costs USD 1 or 0.25% of the traded value, whichever is greater. Crypto has no commission, but every buy and sell is priced with a 1.5% spread from the market price, so a coin quoted at USD 100 costs USD 101.50 and sells for USD 98.50.

Sarwa Invest charges a management fee instead of trading costs: 0.85% a year below USD 100,000 (Standard), 0.7% up to USD 500,000 (Platinum), 0.5% above that (Private Wealth) and 0.4% above USD 5,000,000 (Legacy). The fee accrues daily and is charged monthly, with a minimum of USD 7 a month that does not apply in the first 3 months; Sarwa's own example charges USD 7 for a month on a USD 1,000 balance. Clients who started before 2025 keep their earlier pricing. Sarwa Save costs 0.5% a year on top of the funds' own expense ratios (0.2% for the Pictet fund, 0.25% for the Emirates Islamic Money Market Fund).

What you do not pay, according to Sarwa: account opening, custody, inactivity, withdrawal or account closing fees. The exception is a withdrawal from Sarwa Trade directly to a Saudi bank, which costs USD 35. Moving money is cheap in dirhams and expensive by card:

• Local AED bank transfers: free; Sarwa converts at AED 3.6823 per USD on the way in and AED 3.6639 per USD on the way out (Sarwa's figures as of 02.11.2026; rates subject to change). The two rates are about 0.5% apart, so converting AED into USD and back costs about 0.5%.
• Debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay: 2.99% + AED 1 with a UAE card, 3.99% + AED 1 with other cards.
• Instant Funding on Sarwa Trade: 0.99%.
• Outgoing portfolio transfer: USD 125 per ACAT transfer or USD 5 per position by FOP/DTC.

Sarwa also discloses that it may receive commission payments from its broker partners and that it and Alpaca may keep part of the interest earned from lending clients' securities.

The contracting company is Sarwa Digital Wealth (Capital) Limited, registered in the Abu Dhabi Global Market. The FSRA's public register lists it under Financial Services Permission 190037, granted on 20 February 2020 for Managing Assets and since 16 August 2020 also for Advising on Investments or Credit and Arranging Deals in Investments. Sarwa describes this as a Category 3C licence with Retail Client and Holding and Controlling Client Investments and Money endorsements. Its former Dubai company, Sarwa Digital Wealth Limited, was DFSA-regulated from 13 December 2017 until 14 June 2024, and client relationships were consolidated into the ADGM company in 2024. Sarwa is neither a bank nor listed; an FSRA notice from 2024 describes it as wholly owned by a non-operational holding company in the British Virgin Islands.

Where the money sits depends on the product. Sarwa Trade and crypto run through Alpaca: each client has a fully disclosed account at Alpaca Securities LLC, which Sarwa names as a SIPC member (USD 500,000 including USD 250,000 cash) with excess cover from Lloyd's of London; crypto services come from Alpaca Crypto LLC. Uninvested Trade cash can sit in an FDIC sweep programme with up to USD 1,000,000 of cover. Sarwa Invest and Save assets are held in a custody account at Saxo in Denmark, with Citibank as custodian behind it. These are protections of the partners, not an ADGM compensation scheme, and we found no source for such a scheme.

The FSRA register also lists four regulatory actions, and the DFSA register a fifth against the former Dubai company:

• 2022: Common Reporting Standard failures on the 2020 return; penalty reduced on appeal from AED 254,000 to AED 36,000.
• 2024: further CRS failures, including inaccurate tax identification numbers for 137 accounts; AED 50,000.
• 2024: an offer of shares in Sarwa's holding company to its users in April and May 2023 (“Sarwa Collective”) without an approved prospectus; USD 122,500 and a required governance review.
• 2024 (DFSA): over the same offer, a penalty of USD 191,100 after a 30% settlement discount for Sarwa Digital Wealth Limited. The DFSA also found that Sarwa had withheld financial information, including its loss-making position and its auditors' going-concern questions, in a way likely to mislead potential investors.
• 2025: CRS and FATCA failures; AED 40,000 after appeal (originally AED 50,000).

None of this makes any provider guaranteed safe, and the protections above say nothing about market losses.

Sarwa is built around its mobile app. The web platform gives access to the same accounts from any country, but several functions are app-only, among them card funding, bank syncing and auto-deposits. On 02.11.2026 Apple's UAE App Store showed a rating of 4.6 from about 2,700 ratings and Google Play 4.3 from about 2,620 reviews, with more than 100,000 downloads; these are user ratings, not our assessment.

On Sarwa Trade the app offers market, limit, stop, stop-limit and trailing-stop orders, conditional orders, watchlists, market alerts, company news and financials, and 24/5 trading in four sessions from Sunday evening to Friday: overnight, pre-market, regular market and post-market. Sarwa says pattern day trading restrictions no longer apply since 4 June 2026, following a rule change approved by the SEC. Fractional shares are available for many but not all stocks, and Auto Trading schedules recurring buys of stocks, ETFs or crypto daily, weekly, every other week, monthly or quarterly. IPO Access lets clients request shares in selected IPOs at the offering price; an older help article still says IPO subscriptions are not offered.

Options trading has its own Options Screener: for clients approved for the second options level, it turns a view on direction and timeframe into three pre-packaged choices labelled Low, Balanced and Aggressive. The optional Shariah Screener adds a badge and a compliance report to covered assets. We found no desktop application, no API and no demo account. Sarwa Invest is hands-off by design: rebalancing, dividend reinvestment and auto-deposits run automatically, and larger accounts can add Black Swan Protection, a tail-hedging strategy managed by Universa.

Sarwa Trade covers stocks (including publicly traded warrants), ETFs, options and crypto on US exchanges. Sarwa's own pages give the range as 4,000+, 4,500+ or 10,000+ US stocks and ETFs, so we do not record a single count. Not supported: indices themselves, mutual funds, forwards and futures, bonds, OTC purchases and anything listed outside the US, including UCITS ETFs. Publicly traded partnerships were removed after the US 10% withholding on their sale proceeds took effect in 2023. Dividends from US shares arrive after 30% US withholding tax; Canadian shares bear 15%. Options come in two levels: covered calls and cash-secured puts, and additionally long calls and puts. Trade accounts are margin accounts set to a margin of 1, so buying power equals the cash deposited.

Crypto on Sarwa Trade means 31 coins against USD, from Bitcoin and Ether to Solana, PAXG and Hyperliquid, traded 24/7 with market and limit orders and fractional market orders. Coins cannot be deposited or withdrawn; positions can only be sold into USD, and Sarwa says crypto is not offered in some regions without naming them.

Sarwa Invest builds ETF portfolios in seven risk levels across four lines: conventional (Vanguard and BlackRock ETFs, from USD 500), socially responsible (from USD 2,500), crypto (an extra 5% allocation to bitcoin through the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF) and an Islamic line that Sarwa calls “Halal” (sukuk, a gold ETC and Islamic equity ETFs, from USD 500). Sarwa's pages disagree on the crypto minimum, which they give as USD 500 or USD 2,500.

Sarwa Save invests in money market funds: Save+ in a Pictet short-term money market fund with a projected 3.8% a year before fees, and the Islamic option in the Emirates Islamic Money Market Fund with a projected 4.2%. These are projections, not guaranteed rates, and no interest is paid out; the balance moves with the fund. Older Save accounts still earn 2% on cash. All three figures come from Sarwa's help centre, read on 02.11.2026.

Opening an account is digital: a passport (or, for residents, the Emirates ID or a GCC ID), a proof of address showing name and address, and a live selfie taken during onboarding. Applicants must be at least 18 and must not be US citizens, residents or tax residents. Sarwa says it accepts clients worldwide except residents or tax residents of 29 restricted countries, among them Iraq, Libya, Palestine, Syria and Sudan, and single-passport holders from Iran, North Korea, Myanmar and Yemen; Sarwa Trade and Sarwa Crypto may have further residency limits. You do not have to remain a UAE resident to keep the account. Brokaro lists Sarwa for the nine Arab-world markets it covers, none of which is on that restricted list.

Sarwa Save has no minimum, while Sarwa Trade unlocks trading after a net deposit of USD 500 and Sarwa Invest starts at USD 500 (USD 2,500 for socially responsible portfolios). Accounts are held in US dollars.

Funding options:

• Bank transfer: free from a UAE bank in AED; a bank account synced in the app credits within 5 minutes to 1 business day, a manual wire within 5 minutes to 2 business days.
• Debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay: instant, for 2.99% + AED 1 (UAE cards) or 3.99% + AED 1 (other cards).
• Instant Funding: Sarwa Trade only, 0.99%, up to AED 2,000 while the balance is below USD 1,000 and up to AED 25,000 above that.
• Auto-deposits by standing order into Invest, Save or Trade.

Withdrawals go only to bank accounts previously used to fund the account. A withdrawal from Sarwa Trade to a Saudi bank costs USD 35; Invest and Save cannot pay out to Saudi banks other than ENBD KSA, so that money goes through Sarwa Trade. Sarwa quotes about 1 to 2 business days for Trade, 4 to 6 for Invest (6 to 9 for the Islamic portfolios), 3 to 5 for Save+ and 4 for the Islamic Save option, with a few extra days for USD and international transfers. Joint accounts exist for Invest and Save, corporate accounts from USD 250,000.

Sarwa offers several tools that investors looking for Sharia-screened products in the Gulf will ask about, and it qualifies each of them. Brokaro reports the provider's statements and makes no ruling on permissibility.

• Shariah Screener: off by default. Once switched on in the account settings, it shows a badge on assets that the screening provider rates as compliant, plus a report with a status (Compliant, Doubtful or Not compliant), a grade from C- to A+ and a breakdown of business activities, interest-bearing assets and interest-bearing debt. The data come from Musaffa LLC, an investment adviser registered with the US SEC. Crypto has no report.
• Islamic portfolios: in the line Sarwa calls “Halal”, the 4/7 (Balanced) portfolio holds the BlackRock Islamic ETFs ISDU, ISDW and ISDE, the gold ETC IGLN and the Franklin Global Sukuk Fund. Sarwa says these funds were created by a committee that checks them against Islamic principles; it does not name that committee.
• Islamic Save option: invests in the Emirates Islamic Money Market Fund, with a projected 4.2% a year before fees (Sarwa help centre, read 02.11.2026).
• Cash, margin and lending: Trade cash can earn interest through the FDIC sweep programme, which can be switched off; securities lending (FPSL) is opt-in and can be ended at any time; Trade accounts are set to a margin of 1, so there is no borrowing.

At the same time Sarwa states that it holds no Islamic Window endorsement from the FSRA, that it is not authorised to advise on Islamic financial business, that it engages no Sharia adviser and that it does not guarantee the Sharia compliance of any investment. It tells clients to seek independent advice from a qualified Sharia adviser. Readers for whom this matters should treat the screener and the portfolio labels as Sarwa's descriptions, not as a certification by Sarwa.

Research is modest: company news and financials, top movers and themed lists, market alerts, the Options Screener and the Shariah Screener. We found no in-house equity research. Education comes through Sarwa's blog, a retirement calculator, options videos and articles in the help centre, and financial webinars listed among the Sarwa Invest features. From the Platinum tier (USD 100,000) the Invest page adds a dedicated adviser and financial planning.

Support runs by email (hello@sarwa.co), WhatsApp (+971 50 415 1476) and a request form in the help centre. Sarwa's contact page lists the hours as Monday to Friday 9:00 to 1:00 UAE time while the US is on standard time (November to March) and 9:00 to 24:00 while the US is on daylight saving time (March to November), plus 9:00 to 18:00 on Saturdays and Sundays. The help centre holds more than 300 articles in English. Formal complaints go in writing, in English, to complaints@sarwa.co: Sarwa acknowledges them with a reference number within seven working days and commits to a resolution within 90 days. Clients who remain dissatisfied can complain in writing to the FSRA or use an external dispute resolution scheme, arbitration or the courts.

App-store sentiment is positive (4.6 on Apple's UAE store and 4.3 on Google Play as of 02.11.2026), but Trustpilot blocked our request with a bot check, so we have no Trustpilot figure. Our support rating of 3.2 reflects long hours and WhatsApp access, held back by support documented in English only and by the fact that, apart from the WhatsApp number, we found no published phone line.