Banks are probably frightened of something they can't control or issue, but it's obvious they themselves can benefit from blockchain tech. I still think even forcing banks to rethink the way they do business or lower their fees is a good thing, though I still don't think they can compete with bitcoins low fees as that's where they make a lot of their money.
I think they can easily adapt Bitcoin in their payment systems. Banks are not doing their big money from sending money fees. They make big profit from interest. In fact money order fees are now "0" in most of the new banks.