(13)Certain Member States regulate credit servicing activities, but to varying degrees. Firstly, only some Member States regulate those activities, and, those that do, define them very differently. The increased regulatory compliance costs operate as a barrier to the development of expansion strategies by means of secondary establishment or cross-border provision of services. Secondly, a considerable number of Member States require authorisations for some of the activities that those credit servicers engage in. Those authorisations impose different requirements and do not provide for possibilities of cross-border scaling up. Again, that operates as a barrier to the provision of cross-border services. Finally, in some cases, local establishment is required by law, which hinders the exercise of the freedom to provide cross-border services.