The first part of the article analyses the quantitative developments in the Polish securities market together with its pivotal element - the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The analysis includes information on the number of companies admitted to public trade and on the number of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The study then concentrates on the macro-economic role that the public trade in securities plays in the Polish economy. The capitalisation analysis of Warsaw Stock Exchange and the analysis of the data concerning the quantitative and qualitative size of the primary market indicate that the allocative role of this sector of the capital market is still quite limited. It is pointed out, however, that the stock exchange has played a significant role in the process of privatisation of a number of the biggest Polish state-owned companies and it is vital for the pension system reform which is being implemented in Poland. In the final part of the article, the stock exchange and the banking sector are compared. The analysis suggests that for the fourteen years of economic transformation, Poland has developed a financial system characteristic of most European countries, with private banks playing the dominant role.