国际英语新闻：Goldman & Sachs defends role in SEC allegation

"We have been a client-centered firm for 140 years and if our clients believe that we don't deserve their trust, we cannot survive," Blankfein said.

But many lawmakers believe that Goldman is one of the Wall Street investment banks which played a key role that led to the financial crisis.

"I hope the executives before us today, and their colleagues on Wall Street, will recognize the harm that their actions have caused to so many of their fellow citizens," Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said at the hearing.

The hearing comes as the Senate grapples with Democratic- sponsored legislation to overhaul the nation's financial regulation system. Republicans on Monday blocked the Senate from taking up the measures in a test vote, but Democrats are vowing to try again.