The significance of the former Bank of New Zealand Building (No.2) is due to its association with the Bank of New Zealand and its prominent architecture. It was part of the bank’s head office complex for nearly 70 years, and was designed by one of Wellington's most important architectural firms, Thomas Turnbull and Sons. The building forms an important part of the Lambton Quay streetscape, along with its neighbouring Bank of New Zealand buildings, and contributes to the heritage values of the South Lambton Quay Historic Area registration.

This building was erected in 1904 for the Wellington Building and Investment Company, which was founded in 1886 as a real estate investment company. In 1909, it was renamed Wellington Investment Trustee's Agency. The building was fitted into a small urban site and while not having the visual impact of the main Bank of New Zealand Building (No. 1) that it adjoins to the south, it is of similar general design and has the same distinguishing features of Classical and Renaissance architecture. It completed a collection of three Turnbull designs in the block. Thomas Turnbull designed a number of domestic, commercial and church buildings, especially in Wellington in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His son William, a distinguished architect in his own right, became a partner in the firm in 1891.

The Bank of New Zealand No.2 Building facade is symmetrical, with the main entry capped by a heavy portico complete with large corbels and a triangular pediment. The solid piers of the base are rusticated, as are the attached columns. The windows vary over the four levels of the building. The ground floor windows are recessed into semi-circular arches with a plain cornice above. This cornice serves as a shallow plinth for the giant Ionic order that rises over the first and second storeys. This giant order is capped by a plain entablature above the second floor windows. There is now a verandah above the ground floor level.

The building was leased to the Phoenix Assurance Co. Ltd in 1906 for eight years and was then purchased by the Bank of New Zealand in 1917, to become part of its head office. The Wellington City Council bought all four former BNZ buildings in 1975 in exchange for the new BNZ centre land in Willis Street. Prior to the bank's removal to its new head office in 1985, the Securities and Manager's departments of the Wellington Branch were housed on the ground floor, the cafe was on the top floor and the head office occupied the middle floors. After the bank moved out of the building it saw little use for a decade, although parts of BNZ buildings No.1 and No.2 were used for Fringe Festival performances during the 1990 Wellington Festival of the Arts. Work began in 1997 on converting the building into a retail centre known as the Old Bank Arcade, which incorporated its neighbouring BNZ buildings. Today the BNZ No. 2 building houses various retail shops. The NZHPT has had notification at various times of internal modifications to the shop layouts.