The ongoing credit crisis and worldwide recession has claimed another victim.

This time, SPA ETFs Inc. has decided to close all six of its MarketGrader-branded exchange-traded funds. The funds are offered separately in the U.S., the U.K. and Italy. All MarketGrader ETFs offered by SPA in each market will be shut down, according to the company.

"The board determined current market conditions are unsuitable for a long-only equity investment strategy, such as the one employed by the SPA MarketGrader ETFs. Closing the funds was decided to be in the best interest of the funds' shareholders," said a statement issued by SPA before markets opened on Monday.

The funds were designed to provide market-beating exposure to the U.S. equity market. They track indexes from the Fla.-based quant-shop MarketGrader, which are among the most "active" used in the ETF marketplace. The MarketGrader system evaluates all available U.S. stocks according to 24 quantitative factors relating to growth, value, profitability and cash flow. The ETFs were created by selecting the top 40–200 companies, subject to certain diversification rules, and then rebalancing and reconstituting the funds on either a quarterly or semiannual basis.

As of Friday, the six funds had a total of $10.4 million in assets in the U.S., and another $7.5 million abroad. 

The six U.S. ETFs, all listed on the NYSE Arca exchange, will be closed to new investments by March 25, and will be liquidated by March 30. The funds are:

• SPA MarketGrader 40 Fund (SFV)
• SPA MarketGrader 100 Fund (SIH)
• SPA MarketGrader 200 Fund (SNB)
• SPA MarketGrader Small Cap 100 Fund (SSK)
• SPA MarketGrader Mid Cap 100 Fund (SVD)
• SPA MarketGrader Large Cap 100 Fund (SZG)

Details on the U.K. and Italian delistings were announced in separate announcements to European investors on Monday.

The SPA MarketGrader ETFs launched in London in September 2007, with follow-on launches in the U.S. (October 2007) and Italy (January 2008). Part of the reason for the lack of assets could've been due to relatively high expense ratios. Each charged 0.85% per year, more than other quant-based ETFs, and among the highest expense ratios for any equity-based ETFs on the market.

Despite the close of all its current funds, SPA says that it is not leaving the ETF market.

"We're keeping the ETF trust open and speaking to several parties about developing ETFs not related to MarketGrader," said Megan Sullivan, SPA's head of marketing. "We're staying in the ETF market."