The DMA has been lobbying since 1991 for access to death registration data for list cleaning purposes, as a means to prevent fraud by removing deceased names from acquisition mailing lists and checking for identity fraud.
The Supply of Information (Register of Deaths) Regulations 2007, which came into force on January 1 2008, specifies who the Registrars General can disclose information to on registered deaths, for the purposes of prevention, detection or prosecution of offences.
The process to apply for access to the data will be launched by the three registrars general later this month. Applications will be subject to rigorous risk assessment checks which are likely to include face to face interviews with the applicant and possibly security audits or other investigations.
The licence agreement and compliance arrangements are likely to be equally stringent and will be legally binding.
Angela Traynor, legal coordinator at the DMA, said: "This major breakthrough in accessing death registration data will be very important to our members, particularly those in the financial sector.
"We are particularly gratified to see that the Regulations specify list cleaning as a permitted use for the removal of names of the deceased from lists, defined for the purposes of fraud prevention."