信贷
xìn dài · HSK 7
credit
💳 信贷 = 信 trust + 贷 loan: a loan extended on trust
信 means trust or belief; 贷 means to lend or a loan. Credit is money lent because the lender trusts you will repay, so trust + loan lines up cleanly with credit or borrowed money.
信 — person 亻 + speech 言
信 combines 亻(person) with 言(speech), depicting a person standing by their words. The original sense is 'truthfulness' or 'sincerity'—what a person says can be trusted. From this it extended to 'believe,' 'trust,' and later 'message' or 'letter,' since a letter carries one's word.