oh that's very much what it is. A bunch of banks can have a shared database and use cryptography to ensure that they all stay in sync and settle quickly. It's an improvement they should have made in the 1970's but lack of competition made them complacent.... why do banks care if a transaction actually takes a week or two for final settlement?

So they are improving the speed at which banks can settle between each other using a shared ledger.

There are many networks one can participate in to settle value with others. The 100 trillion dollar question is, which one do you trust the most?