ISTANBUL, May 3 (Reuters) - Turkey’s banking regulator has given Bank of China permission to set up operations in Turkey, a senior official told Reuters on Tuesday.

Officials from the regulatory BDDK met on Monday and discussed the issue, the official said, adding that the bank is expected to start oprtations within nine months and its headquarters will be in Istanbul.

Listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong, Bank of China is one of China’s “big five” banks and the world’s fifth-largest lender by assets, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Rival Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s top lender by assets, already has a presence in Turkey.

While foreign investor sentiment on Turkey has soured somewhat after a spate of bomb attacks this year and renewed fighting between the state and Kurdish militants, the underlying economy remains relatively robust, thanks in part to a young and rapidly growing population.

Turkey’s economy is expected to grow by 3.5 percent this year, according to the World Bank. (Reporting by Orhan Coskun, Writing by Seda Sezer; Editing by David Dolan)