It looks like there is an announcement about that and it seems like every tether has backed by each USD. This has stated by the lawyer of tether. I thought that the banks are only interested to move into the blockchain system because they can reduce a lot of operational cost.
I think initially they would move in to try maintain dominance over financial service markets, which to me makes me think it would include finding a way to do fractional lending since their current business model allows them to 10x their money, eg I deposit $10 into savings and as a result they can lend out $10 to 10 different people. They make (for example) x% off each person's borrowed $10 and pay me a lower % on my $10 deposit, they basically have a licence to print money proportionate to their total deposit values.
