From what I can tell, Ripple is a direct competitor to the US Banking Industry SWIFT system.
The SWIFT system is the cudgel that the US government uses to enforce it's Imperial will upon the rest of the planet.
It's how they extorted almost $9 billion from the French Bank Paribas and how they impose US law on sovereign nations.
It's also faster and the fees are minuscule compared to SWIFT.
If you've ever had to wire transfer money in the US you might look at it differently.
There are also a lot of other countries who would ditch the SWIFT system for a viable alternative, just the same as they'll dump the USD as soon as there's a viable alternative for that.
There have already been 100 banks that have started using it and I figure a medium sized investment now, HODL'ed for a while can pay dividends.