I think that's due to pressure from a number of fintech-companies such as revolut, monzo, transferwise, and what not. They focus on exactly just that, lower exchange rates and simpler money transfers.
A friend went to a talk from a large swiss bank and there was also this question, why they did not go faster forward. The answer was pretty short. Why kill a cashcow.
What I hear from people in the traditional banking sector, they actually don't mind the newer fintech companies such as Revolut, N26 and so on because they'll mainly attract the kind of customers that the traditional banks would rather not have. If you don't have a mortgage, loans, credit cards, stock or so on, then you're not really worth the hassle of having you as a customer. The fintech startups offer none of those things.
No surprises that shortsightedness pervades the traditional banking sector. These services appeal to people who like to travel, i.e. people who are relatively more well off. Then they hope to upsell other financial products to them.
I believe actually there was EU regulation that forced this...
When Monzo made EU withdrawals completely free (again), they said
> After a change in EU regulation on cross-border payments we've decided to remove ATM fees and limits for countries in the European Economic Area (EEA). This means in all EU countries (and a few more) your cash withdrawals are now free! You can see the full list of countries here.