US banks is what I was talking about. I wire money regularly from Europe to the US. And I hear exactly what happens at the receiving end of these wires. And I have a decent comparison base.
The sum sent does arrive intact since I elect to “pay all fees”, but the US banks still add a charge after the money arrives.
And in the US, the smaller banks tend to be cheaper and more efficient, as well as more prompt, at least when it comes to processing wires. Being personally known to them also expedites things, once the same wire has come in a few times processing speeds up. The shortest time until the money is made available has been two days, the longest 12 days. These wires were send within minutes from each other, one to a small bank and one to a large one. The rest fall in between these two, mostly around 5 days.
This has been the same for months with all the different recipients.