rio is the headquarter of major private and state financial, telecom, and entertainment companies. the discovery of oil in the campos basin resulted in rio being the main base of several brazilian and foreign energy, oil, and gas companies. in fact, brazil's subsalt region, a huge deep-sea area of oil reserves under a thick layer of salt, is the size of new york state and could hold about 100 billion barrels - providing a huge demand for rio-based services.

the city is a leading financial and banking center, and rio's financial activities include real estate development, investments, and the second largest stock market in brazil.  created in 1845, the rio de janeiro stock exchange (bolsa de valores do rio de janeiro (bvrj), was the first stock market to be established in brazil and today only trades government securities.