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The DMA for its part said that too few B2B data suppliers supported the scheme. In a statement, the association blamed "limited support by the list industry" preventing the BLA "being used as a discriminator as originally envisaged by the industry". Just under 12 B2B data suppliers signed up to the audit, out of a universe of an estimated 250 providers.

The audit was introduced in 2003 by the DMA, led by the association's then director of postal affairs and industry development David Robottom, in response to demands for a more transparent way to vet business data.

Surveys indicate that a data record decays on average every 18 months as business people change jobs and company names change.

Robottom, now a consultant, blamed the collapse of the scheme on poor promotion. The DMA "never put any serious funds behind it to promote and consistently promote it... and tried to do it on the cheap," he said.

Anthony Hyde, direct marketing manager at Xerox, said he had not heard of the BLA but regretted its demise. "It's disappointing for us because decay is a problem. We did a campaign to senior people in the finance sector and even though the data we bought had assured recency, we verified it and it had decay."

The BLA initially involved a site visit from a member of the DMA compliance team to include data checks and was renewable annually. In 2006 the DMA revamped the scheme to include a requirement for suppliers to provide a sample of data for verification purposes.

Iain Lovett, executive chairman of Blue Sheep, said the scheme "didn't get the heart of why marketers rent B2B lists. Accuracy and responsiveness are the two elements of a good list and while the BLA assessed the accuracy of a name and address, it failed to address the data's fit for purpose, that is whether the records were appropriate for a particular campaign."

Others said the cost of running the scheme was too great given the relatively small universe of B2B marketers compared with that in the consumer sector.

Tony Lamb, a member of the DMA's data council and head of data development at Royal Mail, described its closure as "a missed opportunity. Quality of data is a real issue in B2B and marketers need a transparency in the methods to acquire B2B data. The BLA did that."

Experts are divided on whether a scheme will arise in the BLA's place. "In the current climate of huge data concerns regarding data security, the environment and standards... something [to replace the BLA] is needed," Robottom said.