The US has not gone very far yet with their anti money laundering program. In Sweden, we have got to the point where one can only withdraw a maximum amount of $200/$1000 a day (it depend on the ATM, where common one is the $200 version). There is also a hard limit of $2000 a week.
Alternative, one can "request" a larger withdraw from the bank which means two consecutive physical visits to a designated bank office, with a week between, and during designated hours (10-14). At the bank, they may ask you questions regarding the nature of the money withdraw, and is allowed to deny you if they feel the answer is unsatisfactory.
As a side note, an ID is also always required for any money transfer no matter transaction size. They also removed the option for SMS payments (it was considered too anonymous). The effect from this have been that the most common form of donations to red-cross and the likes has dropped with 90%. Last, any transaction (all sizes) is logged and shared internationally with EU and US.
Please provide sources for these claims (and prove me wrong!). I'm quite sure none of them are actual law as compared to company policies. The ATM limit is surely because of personal security reasons (but it can be raised if you notice the bank), and the SMS payments being removed because the communications providers dont want to be scrutinised by the government under "financial service providers law".
Each bank differs slightly, through a good summery is a blog post from 2010 (http://mfc.elmberg.net/2010/03/07/kontantuttag-vad-galler-fo...). I am quite sure however that most is not law, but rather the banks trying to increase earnings by pushing customers to use credit cards over cash. However, if you ask the banks, they will say its to limit the number of robberies at banks. Given the speed that we are moving towards a cashless society, the truth is likely a mix of them all.
I picked Swedbanks number in my post above, mostly because they are focused on normal consumers and less so at businesses. The numbers are also fairly similar to other banks, with only a few hundred dollars in difference compared to other banks. Their exact numbers are written on their website (http://www.swedbank.se/privat/kort-och-betalningar/kort/om-k...). However, I couldn't find a link for the procedure with larger transactions. The best I could find is this news paper article (http://www.sydsvenskan.se/ekonomi/bankerna-stoppar-stora-utt...). I learned personally the procedure by calling my bank and going through the process myself.
There is very few who still deals with physical cash. Employers has to go through the same procedures, so salaries are almost exclusively paid through the bank.
For stores, most push customers to use personal card bounded to your bank account. The trains/buses uses a personalized travel card, and most has stopped taking physical cash altogether. Supermarket stores and gas stations has their "member" cards, but has also tried to move to smart phone apps (they get positional data on their customer through this method). Everyone else mostly takes both credit card and physical cash, but some towns have tried to move to credit card only.
I think Sweden needs a dose of Ayn Rand then. It's not a great idea to have every single financial transaction be monitored and controlled by the state.
You can pay with a debit/credit card almost everywhere. And most do. Local hot dog cart? Sure!
At least in the big cities, like Stockholm, Göteborg (Gothenburg), Malmö, Uppsala - cards are the main way of paying. You don't often see bills/coins changing hands.
Want to know something else that's funny in Sweden regarding debit/credit cards? There's almost no cards that give a percentage/cash back - and if they do, there's a high yearly fee - or a low pay out.
The common type of expenses is almost exclusively done through credit cards. Food, travel, gas, and bills have gone so far that its difficult (and often more expensive) to use physical cash rather than something bound to the bank account. Its perfectly viable to live/visit stockholm and not have any physical cash on you. Of course one would have to live with the fact that the bank takes transaction fees (if your not using a Swedish bank), and that any purchase is logged.
Those limits are certainly not correct, I have taken out around $2000 in 3 withdrawals within 5 minutes in one ATM (SEB) earlier this year.
The SMS payment change was not due to the new EU directive, it was due to the telcos wanted to change it. SMS payment from anonymous prepaid cards were already not possible.
SEB seems to lack a day limit, but has a "for each withdraw" limit of $1500 and a 4-day limit of $3000. This is also only in special ATMs, where the common form again only allow for a ~$200 withdraw. If the is per day or per witdraw I do not know. (http://www.seb.se/pow/wcp/index.asp?ss=/pow/wcp/templates/se...)
On other hand, SEB has a hard limit of $14000 a month regarding any type of transaction (bank wire, withdraws, ectra).
as a side note, should test both types of atm to see if its per withdraw or per day. They do not actually say it explicitly. I have never tried to do 15 withdraws in a row on the same machine. I suspect the line behind me will start to mutter...
Alternative, one can "request" a larger withdraw from the bank which means two consecutive physical visits to a designated bank office, with a week between, and during designated hours (10-14). At the bank, they may ask you questions regarding the nature of the money withdraw, and is allowed to deny you if they feel the answer is unsatisfactory.
As a side note, an ID is also always required for any money transfer no matter transaction size. They also removed the option for SMS payments (it was considered too anonymous). The effect from this have been that the most common form of donations to red-cross and the likes has dropped with 90%. Last, any transaction (all sizes) is logged and shared internationally with EU and US.