The world’s largest recruitment agency, Adecco, has come under fire for its handling of the accounting scandal in its North American operations.

Although the company claimed it could not talk about the problems to analysts for legal reasons, finance director Felix Weber briefed the Herald Tribune newspaper, commenting in detail on the group’s difficulties.

Investors were angry that the firm had opted to brief a newspaper first, instead of talking to the stock market.

But fears that the company could be the next Enron have receded somewhat.

Some analysts believe the problems will be confined to the firm’s US operations and has been tripped up by the tightening of financial regulations in the wake of recent corporate scandals.

Shares in the Swiss-listed firm are now worth CHF 56.05 (£25) each after falling as low as CHF 45.5 (£20) after it announced the news on Monday.