The financial crisis and some of the world banks irresponsibilities once led to a great financial crisis and unemployment and wealth loss for the people and the people was not allowed to even withdraw their hard earned money these may have led people to think of decentralized currency . Decentralized currency means there is no interference of a third party it is only a peer to peer transaction done by the user and is free from other institutions.
In fact, Satoshi Nakamoto was able to think of a decentralized currency due to the financial crisis that happened way back 2008. Because of recession, a lot of people suffered and some companies are closed resulting to a lot of people losing their jobs. Inflation rate is at the ceiling so a deflationary currency is one of the ways to resolve the crisis. Eventually, the recession subsided and some companies was able to get back on its feet and then come the currency that has a backbone of a technology that would solved many problems including but not limited to double spending and using middlemen.
Actually, we don't know the exact reason and primary impetus that pushed Satoshi toward developing Bitcoin. Anyone in his place would find some handsome reason to explain his effort after the event, while, in fact, he might have been driven mostly by curiosity or even less appealing reasons, without ever thinking of any economic crises. Anyway, the idea of a decentralized cryptographically protected currency was first described in the open as early as late 1990's in some obscure NSA whitepaper, so it pretty much precedes the economic crisis of 2008. You can find this paper on the Web if you are willing to learn more.
Right now people want to hear some good story about Bitcoin's creation but in essence we don't really know.
This is what the banks are afraid of. A peer to peer transaction would make them useless and would eventually make them lose their business that's why they are searching for ways now to use blockchain technology and gain back the trust of people. With crypto, we become the bank ourselves and have control of our own money in which the banks cannot give us because they are the ones who have control of our funds once we decide to deposit our money to them.
The rumor of banks employing the blockchain technology has been circulating since 2004 or maybe even earlier than that. Apart from minor developments and test cases, there are no massive, real-life application of this technology by the banks. Simply speaking, in so centralized environment as the banking sector there is no need for the blockchain.