Thanks for the quick reply.

Obviously we have found the BIN lookup on this web site which is why we are posting on here asking for information about how to download the database. Using it "somewhat illegally" is not really an option for a payments system which will need to go through a proper security auditing procedure!

As for the MARS application, I have downloaded this and it has the relevant data in it but not in an easily extractable format. I will contact the authors to see if there is a way that this data can be used and will post anything I find on here.