An iterative algorithm for the design of multichannel cosine-modulated quadrature mirror-image filter (QMF) banks with near-perfect reconstruction is proposed. The objective function is formulated as a quadratic function in each step whose minimum point can be obtained using a closed-form solution. This approach has high design efficiency and leads to filter banks with high stopband attenuation and low aliasing and amplitude distortions. The proposed approach is then extended to the design of multichannel cosine-modulated QMF banks with low reconstruction delays, which are often required, especially in real-time applications. Several design examples are included to demonstrate the proposed algorithms, and some comparisons are made with existing designs.