That has not been my experience, ever. I only had "problems" with my bank once, that was when I was buying parachute equipment from France. The transfer went through, the bank contacted me and said "we have turned off international transfers from your account due to what we believe could be fraud committed by a third party". I contacted them, was told the cause of the "lock", said it was a legitimate transfer, they unlocked the international transfer thingy, really smooth.

I regularly withdraw money from ATMs in excess of 500 USD equiv.

I have not heard of this 2K USD equiv. / month thing either, is that the policy of your bank or is it regulatory? Do you have a source?

EDIT: I live in Sweden