Their private blockchain initiative is still better than what they have now.
Of course it wont be blockchain with miners and public nodes, it will likely just be some kind of cryptographic connection/database between banks.
I think its good if they look into this, at least if they look into more secure payment systems between then the amount of hacks could diminish.
Over the long term though ,I think bitcoin will outcompete them, but at least they familiarize themselves with the technology.