I've experienced difficulty withdrawing large sums of cash here in the US too. Not for security reasons, but because bank branches apparently don't keep as much actual cash on hand as you'd think. Several years ago I bought a very nice used car for $10Kin a private sale, and the owner had to pay off his loan on the car in order to sell it to me, so I had to meet him at his bank with cash to get the bank to sign off on the title. I had to go to 2 or 3 different branches to get the money. (The bank was Washington Mutual, now Chase). There was not a limit per se, it was just up to the discretion of the bank manager based on how much cash they had on hand.