Oh of course they have banks (a lot of people know them and get regualry dividens) but that Tether situation was more or less founded when Wells Fargo (the monopolist on international remitance) was flagging (plus block) cryptocurrency transaction not only on Finex - no exchange was able to receive FIAT overnight from the community.
The logical idea was to decentralize bank accounts that they can not filter transactions easy.... of course not perfect but it is not crypto broken - it is the crappy banking system in America what is broken.
What I always find interesting that people from US think they are the only of the world when nobody give a shit on whole planet in meantime - lol.