Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you ever submitted a payment or received a payment and seen it marked as "pending". That's likely the result of a delay due to interbank transfers. Real time settlement is something theoretically possible with central banking using something like Fedwire, but in practice most banks use a third party clearinghouse like CHIPS. Additionally, if you have funds in USD and you need to make a payment in EUR, you'll pro…
I participated in writing a money transfer service. There's a number of steps, and the actual transfer is just one of them. There can be multiple identity verification checks, and bank authorizations. Each bank has their own internal API, etc. Sometimes their API is just randomly down, if it is some terrible foreign bank. I know for a fact that Bitcoin's transaction time is not "real time," so why would Ripple's be?
Ripple doesn't use proof of work, it relies on a web of trust. So, in order to transfer money from Bank A to Bank B, it relies on Bank A to have some path to Bank B that is trusted. If Bank A and Bank B don't trust each other, but both trust Bank C, then the money is routed through Bank C.
Not sure what you mean by identity verification, if you're talking about for the customers, then they'd still need to have their identity verified at the bank (for purposes of Ripple, a bank is a ripple Gateway, but not all gateways are banks). Honestly, I'm an armchair expert in money transfer systems -- pretty familiar with Ripple, but less familiar with other systems.