He's from Ripple although he's just a former anymore. But there were already plans from countries who are planning to use the technology of cryptocurrencies such as blockchain for payments.
They were reportedly on developments for another payment system but it's not going to be with XRP/Ripple's technology. But they have their very own source and that means they don't need XRP.
Banks may badly need blockchain technology, but yes, it doesn't mean they need the Ripple's technology. However, on the other note, I like ripple as one of the alts with very cheap tx fees and quite fast as well. Merchants or shops can utilise this alt as good alternative for btc. But when it comes to banks, I don't think so. As ripple is a centralized cryptocurrency, the owners of this coin will just amass wealth if the global banks will deploy their technology. It is better to use their own to be independent from this platform.
Once they have understand what's in the circle of blockchain, they'll adopt it as soon as they see it beneficial for them. There are other projects that offer different solution for the banking sector, it could be them that will be remembered or considered by those banks.
I'm not discouraging but that's the fact. In blockchain development, there's also competition from those developers that are working on it.