WASHINGTON — Wells Fargo & Co. has agreed to pay $85 million to settle civil charges that it falsified loan documents and pushed borrowers toward subprime mortgages with higher interest rates during the housing boom.

The fine is the largest ever imposed by the Federal Reserve in a consumer enforcement case, the central bank said Wednesday.

Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement. The bank agreed to compensate borrowers who were steered into higher-priced loans or whose income was exaggerated.

The Fed said a unit of Wells Fargo inflated borrowers’ incomes on loan documents to qualify for mortgages they otherwise couldn’t afford from 2004 until 2008. Sales personnel also pushed borrowers toward higher-interest subprime loans, even though they were eligible for lower-interest mortgages, the central bank said.

Between 3,700 and 10,000 people could be compensated under the settlement, the Fed said. The payments will likely range from $1,000 to $20,000.

The loans were issued by Wells Fargo Financial Inc., a subsidiary that closed in July 2010, the bank said.

“The alleged actions committed by a relatively small group of team members are not what we stand for at Wells Fargo,” said Chairman and CEO John Stumpf in a statement. The bank has already paid restitution to about 600 customers, it said.

The alleged actions by Wells Fargo are similar to accusations made against many subprime lenders during the housing boom. Hundreds of those smaller lenders went bankrupt when the housing market collapsed in 2007.

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