The key to getting banks to do what you want may be as simple as adopting a strategy that women's magazines have been advocating for years: withholding sex.
Members of the trade association for high-class escorts in Spain have stopped having sex with bank employees until they start providing credit to Spanish families and small businesses, according to RT. The union got the idea for the protest after one escort was able to convince a bank employee to grant a loan simply by saying she would stop her services until he "fulfills his responsibility to society."
Spain's banking sector has been targeted by a variety of critics as the country continues to suffer from a years-long economic crisis. Credit rating agencies downgraded some of the country's biggest lenders last month, according to the Financial Times. And with up to 200 foreclosures per day, the banks are taking heat from protesters and others for allegedly fueling a housing bubble by offering easy money that ultimately led to economic collapse.
Then there's the rampant unemployment. Amid the crisis, Spain lays claim to the highest jobless rate in the eurozone, at 22.9 percent.
Though the Spanish escorts' tactics may seem relatively unique, they channel other similar strategies used to protest big banks here in the United States. As part of a Lent-themed protest more than 20 churches pulled millions of dollars from big banks earlier this month to demonstrate against their foreclosure practices.
In addition, Occupy Wall Street, a social media push known as Bank Transfer Day and particularly notorious fees, helped to encourage consumers to move their money from big banks in droves. Membership at credit unions -- an alternative to big banks -- more than doubled between 2010 and 2011, according to the National Credit Union Association.
Still in some places banks are doing right by vulnerable clients. Sangini, a financial institution in Mumbai, India's red-light district, only serves sex workers in an aim to help them build savings and collect interest, the Los Angeles Times reports.