This letter proposes a variable step-size sign subband adaptive filter (SSAF) based on the minimization of mean-square deviation (MSD). In the process of minimizing the MSD, because it is not feasible to know the exact value of the MSD, the step size is derived by minimizing the upper bound of the MSD in each iteration. The proposed algorithm uses this step size in the SSAF update equation so as to improve the filter performance in terms of the convergence rate and the steady-state estimation error. The proposed algorithm is tested in a system-identification scenario that includes impulsive noise. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm performs better than the previous algorithms.