The establishment of open pension funds was accompanied by great hopes as to their role as the economy driver on the one hand and an opportunity for the development of the Polish capital market on the other. It was emphasized that open pension funds would influence the development of the Warsaw Stock Exchange by improving its liquidity and the accuracy of securities valuation. Thanks to the volume of their assets, open pension funds would also protect the market from speculators. However, these predictions focused mainly on the demand side of the market. Some analysts thought that regular injections of capital from contributions submitted to open pension funds would be automatically absorbed by the young and developing capital market in need for financing.

Five years ago not many assumed that the system of obligatory pension funds with a modern structure would have to face serious problems of a different nature. As more and more assets are submitted to the funds, it becomes clear that the funds have significant problems with finding the appropriate supply of securities.

In that context, the paper focuses on the following issues:

• a threat of a demand bubble on the stock market in Poland,
• recommended changes in the structure of the Polish capital market leading to the increase of domestic investment categories available to open pension funds,
• justification of the limit on foreign investments in the pension funds' portfolios,
• the influence of the minimum required return rate mechanism on the motivation of the funds' managers.