So, no, they don't do the audits themselves but they have been audited several times over the last 8 years, and so far they have passed their audits with flying colours.
The people running that business take it very seriously, they process about 150M$US annually and they have it set up so that every customer has their own merchant account.
This is contrary to most IPSP's that multiplex a single (or several) merchant account(s) across many merchants, which I personally believe is a recipe for disaster. For more information on what can go wrong have a look at 'IBill' and 'DMR'.
This does mean that it is much more expensive to set up a customer but the good news is that it actually is a lasting relationship instead of 'until we get yanked'.
tptacek, you're right about life being too short for that BUT in some cases an entity really does need to ensure compliancy.