The paper presents the evolution of categories of problems accompanying the development of the Polish capital market in the 90s. The first few years were typified by fundamental problems such as the psychological, legal-institutional, capital and human resource barriers. When these had been overcome - more or less completely - the market was gradually dominated by "second generation" problems pertaining to this phase of market development. Before analysing the current problems categories, the author provides a description of the Polish capital market at the turn of the years 2000 and 2001.

In terms of institutions, its structure is not very different from that of the mature capital markets. It consists of: the Securities and Exchanges Commission, the Stock Exchange, the OTC market and the settlement systems. Against this backdrop, the author discusses the problems typical of the current operation of the market. While these relate to many different aspects and sectors of the market, the paper gives broader treatment to the following issues:

1. market liquidity,
2. ineffective corporate governance in the lower-capitalization companies which do not have a strategic investor,
3. market depth, both on the supply side (new issues) and the demand side (the growth of the institutional investor sector),
4. capital market crime.

The final part of the paper provides a brief review of problems relating to politics or macroeconomics, such as:

1. the political situation,
2. financial crises in the emerging markets,
3. fiscal and monetary policies,
4. the situation in key world markets, with the prevailing impact of the American market.

The author concludes with the proposition that further evolution will bring problems characteristic of fully-fledged capital markets. They will result primarily from the country's economic situation. It is therefore necessary to keep in mind J.K. Galbraith's statement that it is the economy which gives rise to problems in the capital market, which only reflects the overall economic performance.