That's exactly what he's talking and why Ripple is intriguing.  Currently to send money across distances you need a clearing house.  You are correct that Hawala does this without a clearing house & Ripple is a digital version of Hawala.

The reason why you want this is because people use different local currencies.  If my Chinese supplier only accept RMB as payment and if I want to use BTC how can the transfer take place?  Either there is a clearing house that takes my BTC and gives him RMB or something like Ripple.