As usual, you're getting your knickers in a twist over something that's a very, very old policy.
Withdrawal policies have been in place on savings accounts for as long as I've had a savings account, likely longer - I'm not investigating the date, but my guess would be back to the days of the New Deal.
Why are you getting worried over this? Checking accounts can generally be cleared out of money so long as you're not making the bank illiquid in the process. So the average person has no impact, but a corporate account or that of a very rich person would require a few days' time for the bank or credit union to process such a request. ATM limits are in place for two reasons. First to protect the ATM from running out of cash as they're only restocked on a regular basis. Second, it limits consumers' exposure as targets for theft while getting cash from an ATM as it creates a ceiling of profit for criminals. Combine that ceiling with security cameras, and you see crimes occurring at ATMs reduced dramatically since the late 80's and early 90's - all without government edict.
