The Securities and Exchange Commission was missing last month when the White House unveiled the plan that roiled the financial industry. The proposal, crafted by the Labor Department, would require brokers to put retirement savers’ interests ahead of their own in an effort to eliminate what it calls biased advice that costs investors billions of dollars annually.

The SEC, which oversees the brokerage industry as a whole, has studied for years whether to impose a broader regulation that would cover all investors, not just those saving for retirement. The industry says the decision to move ahead without the SEC would burden brokers with two sets of rules -- one for retirement accounts, one for all others -- and confuse investors.

“If the SEC saw a problem with how investment advice is given, I’m sure they would act on it,” Francis Creighton, chief lobbyist of the Financial Services Roundtable, said in an interview. “This is squarely in the SEC’s jurisdiction.”