Joo Seng Wong

Joo Seng's Story

From Trading Floors to Building Financial Market Infrastructure

Joo Seng Wong never set out with a fixed career destination. Growing up in Singapore, his interests were broad—spanning mathematics, economics, language, and even architecture. Rather than narrowing his options early, he chose to study Economics and Mathematics at the National University of Singapore, a combination that gave him analytical depth while keeping multiple pathways open.

When Joo Seng graduated in the late 1980s, banking was a natural starting point. He joined United Overseas Bank (UOB) through its management trainee program in 1987, rotating across branch banking, credit, corporate lending, and trade finance. The breadth of exposure helped him understand banking as a system rather than a set of silos. More importantly, it introduced him to Dr. Gan Tjoen Hock, head of UOB’s precious metals business, who would become a pivotal mentor.

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Under Dr. Gan’s guidance, Joo Seng moved into treasury and trading at a time when derivatives and options were still poorly understood in Asia. Futures and options were volatile and often misused. Rather than focusing on directional bets, Joo Seng learned to think in terms of risk structures—how markets behave when prices rise, fall, stagnate, or turn volatile. This grounding in risk management shaped how he would approach every subsequent role.

​After two and a half years, when his mentor moved to Republic National Bank of New York to head the branch, Joo Seng joined him there. The mission was to expand the bank's presence in Asia. ​The scale was immediately different for Joo Seng. Risk limits were larger, markets moved faster, and trading was global. He underwent advanced options training at London Business School, spent time on trading floors in London and New York, and by his late 20s was running the Asian options desk in Singapore, as the youngest ever vice president of the bank, managing a book handed seamlessly across time zones.

By his early 30s, Joo Seng had achieved what many would consider success—senior responsibility, strong compensation, and financial security. At 32, he reached a point where his investments could sustain him long term. Instead of pushing further, he chose to step away. He relocated to New Zealand, obtained permanent residency, and spent several years managing his own capital, raising a family, and reassessing what mattered to him.

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His return to professional work was unplanned. In 1996, Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) approached him to stabilize a complex options portfolio during an election period—a time of heightened market sensitivity. Joo Seng took on the role of Head of the Options Desk, guiding the bank through volatility with discipline and clarity.

Soon after, he returned to Singapore to lead TLB Bullion and Futures at Tat Lee Bank, responding again to a call from a trusted former boss. Although the business performed well, the Asian Financial Crisis soon followed. Much of the work became defensive rather than constructive, making it one of the less fulfilling chapters of his career.

That experience set the stage for a turning point. At 35, Joo Seng was invited by G K Goh to build G K Goh Financial Services from scratch. This became his first true entrepreneurial role. Drawing on years of trading experience, he designed trading, risk, compliance, finance, and operations systems from the ground up. Over the next 15 years, he built the firm into one of the largest FX trading operations in Asia outside Japan. For the first time, he was not just running a trading book, but an institution.

As the business matured, Joo Seng became increasingly aware of structural inefficiencies in global markets—particularly in how cross-currency pricing distorted equity investing. That insight led to his next venture: M-DAQ, founded in 2010. The idea was simple but powerful—enable investors to trade global equities in their local currencies with transparent FX pricing. Joo Seng served first as Non-Executive Chairman, then Executive Chairman as the company scaled. In 2014, M-DAQ secured a strategic investment from Alibaba, valuing the company at SGD 250 million. Stepping away later required a different kind of discipline: knowing when to let go.

By the mid-2010s, Joo Seng saw another, deeper gap—this time in trading infrastructure itself. In 2016, he conceptualized and co-founded Spark Systems, where he serves as Founder and CEO. The ambition was not to build another trading venue, but to modernize the plumbing of FX markets—creating infrastructure designed for speed, resilience, and efficiency, shaped by decades of firsthand experience.

Under his leadership, Spark Systems grew from concept to trusted platform, attracting backing from major financial institutions and forming strategic partnerships with leading banks. For Joo Seng, Spark represents a natural evolution—from trader, to builder of businesses, to builder of market infrastructure. The focus is no longer on individual positions, but on simplifying complexity at scale.

Alongside his operational work, Joo Seng has remained active in the venture community. He is a Venture Partner at Vickers Venture Partners, where he brings his deep markets experience to support emerging fintech and deep tech businesses. This role allows him to contribute beyond his own companies—helping founders navigate complex markets with discipline and long-term perspective.

Today, Joo Seng continues to operate at the intersection of markets, technology, and entrepreneurship—building platforms and backing ideas that reflect a lifetime of understanding how financial systems truly work.