The $275 million in cost savings Capital One Financial expects to realize from its acquisition of North Fork Bancorporation by 2008 looks too aggressive, according to analysts at SNL Financial in Charlottesville, Va. The banks have no branches in the same areas that could be closed in a merger, so the cost savings must come from synergies in information technology or loan and deposit processing. Two years seems too short to realize these gains.

"As with a lot of these deals, the cost cutting estimates probably won't be realized," said Brian Shullaw, a senior analyst at SNL. He also questions the wisdom of replacing the North Fork name with Capital One on bank branches, a brand synonymous with credit cards and the wild barbarian hoards from the company's popular commercials.

But Shullaw thinks the deal makes sense, because the bank's retail deposits provide a source for credit-card lending. And if Capital One hadn't bought Hibernia for $4.9 billion last year, it would have been a takeover target like other independent credit card companies. In the past year, MBNA, Providian Financial and Metris were snatched up by commercial banks.