Research

The Industry Roundtable is a closed-door session under the Singapore Islamic Finance Forum (SIFF) 2025, bringing together senior practitioners, regulators, academics, and community leaders to shape the next chapter of Islamic wealth management in Singapore.

This year’s roundtable builds on last year’s resolutions and focuses on two pressing themes for the industry:

Amplifying Awareness – How can industry players, regulators, and community partners collectively elevate public understanding of Islamic finance and wealth management in a cohesive, consistent, and impactful way?

Ensuring Integrity in Promotion – How can we establish clear guardrails and professional standards so Muslim finance professionals promote Islamic products responsibly, avoiding misrepresentation and safeguarding community trust?

Zakat remains one of the most established compulsory social finance instruments within the Muslim community, yet its real-world outcomes continue to lag behind its theoretical potential. Despite steady growth in zakat collection and record-high figures reported by community institutions, persistent challenges remain in translating collections into sustained impact. The roundtable acknowledged that the issue is not the absence of funds or willingness to give, but systemic weaknesses in governance, literacy, and coordination across institutions involved in zakat, waqf, estate planning, and community finance. This disconnect has created uneven outcomes across beneficiaries and contributed to ongoing questions around effectiveness and trust