This article is divided into four sections. In the first one, we describe the origin and history of investment banking, with particular focus on the economic conditions that led to its birth in the United States. The second part considers those products offered by investments banks which are available to Polish entrepreneurs and individual clients willing to introduce their financial resources to the capital market. In the fourth, and last, section of the present article, we look at those areas of investment banking which stand a chance to flourish in the aftermath of the crisis. In this last section, we also touch on matters of international scope, which is necessitated by the fact that specialist (i.e. separate from domestic universal banking) investment banking in Poland is the preserve of foreign investment banks and their Polish branches.