2020 in Fintech and Alternative Finance: Part 1 By Oliver Smith on Tuesday 29 December 2020 Image source: Glen Carrie on Unsplash. In a year supposed to be all about Brexit uncertainty, instead, fintechs and alternative lenders found themselves dealing with a somewhat more unexpected challenge as the Covid-19 pandemic struck. In this article, we take a look back at the stories which set the pace over the first six months of 2020. January The year kicked off with optimism as Visa woke everyone up from the Christmas slump with its $5.3bn takeover of open banking provider Plaid, while open banking in the UK reached a milestone of 1m customers.