Investor focus is shifting from equity to debt funds of late because of decline in stock market and extreme market volatility, a top mutual funds industry official said.

"Investor focus is shifting from equity to debt funds because of the extreme volatile market conditions," Association of Mutual Funds in India chairman, A P Kurian, told reporters on a Wednesday at a seminar on risk and compliance being held in Mumbai.

"It would take a few more months before the equity market starts looking up on a sustainable level," Kurian said.

Investors would start revisiting the equity market only after a few months. "For that, equities have to start coming up on a sustained basis," he said.

Kurian said that new fund launches have been put off because of the prevailing volatile market conditions.

"New funds are there but people are not launching them because of (prevailing) market conditions. New fund-houses have put off their entry into the market because of market conditions," he said.

On the mutual funds industry, Kurian said that it was back to normal from mid-November onwards.

"There is (now) no redemption pressure on mutual funds," he said, adding that there was no plan of changing mutual funds' capital requirements base.

On the global financial crisis, Kurian said that it reflected a clear expression of failure of regulatory oversight.

"We have to focus on these aspects," he added.