Louis Vuitton Does Cross-Border Payments, Connects To SWIFT Via FIS

FIS, a global leader in financial services technology, announced that it has connected LVMH Group to the SWIFT Global Payments Innovation (gpi).

The move will enable the global retailer — which owns 70 luxury brands including Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Fendi and Givenchy — to enhance the efficiency and traceability of its cross-border payments.

“Corporate treasurers are increasingly seeking to manage their payments functions in real time to enhance control and visibility of their cash flows,” Steve Evans, head of Corporate Liquidity and Bank Treasury, FIS, said in a press release. “LVMH’s volume of cross border payments presented unique challenges for the company, and we are pleased to provide the tools needed to leverage these emerging opportunities.”

FIS leveraged its Trax corporate payments factory, which provides corporate treasury functions a highly secure platform for consolidating and standardizing their accounts payments workflow, to connect LVMH Group’s partner banks to the SWIFT gpi. With more than 280 banks on board, SWIFT allows real-time tracking of payments, facilitating more accurate reconciliation and preventing costly and time-consuming investigations for missing or incorrect payments.

LVMH Group plans to expand its SWIFT gpi implementation across its full cross-border payment network, which processes more than 1.5 million payments annually.

“This has been a great collaborative effort between our banks, SWIFT, and FIS that has already delivered tangible benefits to LVMH Group in our cross-border payments operation,” said Laurent Dall’Aglio, finance project manager, LVMH. “We look forward to continuing this work and realizing the full promise of real-time cross-border payments.”

Based in Paris, about 65 percent of the multinational company’s payments go across borders. Last year, Louis Vuitton launched an eCommerce website in China to tap into the country’s booming online shopping market. And LVMH also created 24 Sèvres, a multibrand luxury eCommerce site that falls under the branding umbrella of Le Bon Marché, the company’s upmarket department store.