[1][2] The shares were listed on the London Stock Exchange and special enabling legislation enacted in New Zealand, (the) Bank of Otago Limited Act, 1863.

The many advertisements announced: "The Bank will receive money on deposit in London and New Zealand, repayable at long and short dates, open drawing accounts in the colony, issue Notes, discount Bills, conduct exchange operations, receive dividends, interest, &c, for customers, effect purchases and sales in funds, stock, &c, for them, and transact all other legitimate banking business.

[9] Bathgate was replaced by 34-year-old Australian-born William Larnach, who was appointed from London and arrived in Dunedin in September 1867 to be chief colonial manager of the bank.

Work on the expensive stone new building at Oamaru was halted for some months but did resume and smaller branches continued to establish themselves around the region.

The fire destroyed all the buildings in the block but only scorched the Bank of New Zealand just across the narrow alley —favoured, it was reported, by a light wind from the north-west.

[14] Its intended sphere far wider than the province of Otago the new bank was incorporated in London by a different group of people including a number of former high profile New Zealand residents, among them former Governor Thomas Gore Browne, former Speaker Charles Clifford and former Wellington Provincial Superintendent Isaac Featherston.