Accounting standard-setters have announced plans to work together towards a common set of accounting standards that will deal with off balance sheet activity and accounting for financial instruments. The International Accounting Standards Board and its US counterpart the Financial Accounting Standards Board, have announced the procedures as part of their response to dealing with the global financial crisis. Under this response, they will also work towards analysing loan loss accounting. The boards have said they are committed to reaching an overall goal of convergence between International Financial Reporting Standards and US generally accepted accounting principles. Proposals to replace their respective financial instruments standards with a common standard also aim to be issued in a matter of months, not years, as originally stated. Sir David Tweedie, chairman of the IASB, said global solutions to a global crisis were 'not always easy to achieve' and that there may be areas where 'the two boards find in difficult to reconcile differences in the existing standards in the immediate term'. 'The path to achieving convergence will undoubtedly be challenging but the remit we have from policymakers is clear,' he added.