The text is a report from the National Conference of Finance Faculties entitled "Challenges to the Polish Banking Sector Posed by Systemic and Economic Environment at the Turn of the 20th and 21st Centuries". The conference was organised by the Faculty of Banking, Warsaw School of Economics, in cooperation with the Foundation for Education and Banking Research. It was held at Pultusk between 27 and 29 of October 2000.

The conference was attended by nearly 100 participants, including Polish banking practitioners and many representatives of banking and finance science from the key university centres in Poland.

The report summarises the two-day session, which focused on the following three topic areas:

1. the future of the banking system;
2. banking products and banking environment;
3. bank management and financial risk.

The authors present the main points of the speeches made by contributors, among them the bank presidents Andrzej Topinski, Alfred Brodzki and Stanislaw Pacuk.

In addition, the report outlines the contents of 14 contributions drafted for the conference, which served as a starting point for the debate. It then goes on to relate the main points of this debate, which dealt with the advantages and disadvantages of the current financial systems, the evolution and development of the Polish financial services market as well as the impact of the country's changing economic environment.

The authors finally present the summaries of the debate delivered by the moderators in charge: Krzysztof Pietraszkiewicz, Antoni Kantecki and Krzysztof Jajuga. This final part also covers the conlusions and proposals voiced by the representatives of Polish banks and financial institutions as well as academic workers.